Finally. The "season" (line drawn at Jun 1, 2003) is now over two months behind us, and unfortunately I am just now finishing the list, barely in time for the Fall onslaught. In all honesty, had so many people not e-mailed me (or posted) about it, I may have never gotten around to it. (Skip ahead now if you care not about why it took so long.) Many of you are aware that I suffered some deaths in the family this year, which sucks enough on its own, and spending time with the family was clearly more important than watching TV; but thanks to TiVo, I was able to record over 100 hours of content with intentions to watch when my schedule permitted. Working 60-70 hours a week and trying to maintain a "life" made this a difficult proposition, but I slowly began to work through everything in the middle of June when the TV Gods felt it important to test my faith with a Job-style lesson manifest in a power-surging thunderstorm that would make Zeus himself crap his loincloth. And just like that, my TiVo was dead. Well, that's not fair to say. My TiVo was fine; in fact, I'm amazed at how well it's held up over the years. The primary drive, however, was dead, and after weeks of tinkering with the drive's control board, I concluded that it wasn't coming back. Those shows were simply gone.

Now, I may be a lot of things -- and I'm sure many forum members enjoy calling me some of those things when I'm not looking -- but none of them is hypocrite, especially when it comes to my own sig. How could I ever in good conscience make a list of the top episodes when I had not actually seen everything of consequence? I was already faced with the daunting task of watching all of these episodes just to catch up; now I had to find them. I utilized every resource I had, called in some favors, and with the help of abm, KaZaa, IRC, BitTorrent, VHS by mail, and the good folks at SD-6, shockingly I was able to track down everything. Meanwhile, I endeavored to make Steve Austin proud (no, not Stone Cold ... Lee Majors) as I rebuilt my TiVo. "We have the technology ..." Web server, ftp, telnet, serial bash, file extraction, and dual 160-gig drives with lba-48 hack to utilize every last bit for over 300 hours of recording with a redundant backup system to another PC ... and On*Star. "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." OK, so my TiVo isn't invisible and doesn't spend its evenings chillin' at campfires with Anakin and Yoda, but it is ready to kick some ass in case this ever happens again. Anyway, for those who were asking why it took me so long ... there's your answer. Weeks later, and on the heels of some serious marathon viewing, I'm finally prepared to make informed opinions about this season. I apologize for not getting it done sooner, but such is life.

I should note, as always, that I make this list for myself so I can look back and remember how I was feeling and how different shows impacted me at a certain period in my life and in television history. While the nominating committee consists of myself and a warehouse full of Moutain Dew Code Red, the final choices are ultimately just my opinions. As people have expressed interest in my list, I'm more than happy to share it with others, but different shows affect us all in different ways, and you may have your own opinions on these episodes. I would hope that you'd share those opinions as I have, since I think there's always great value in sharing informed but differing opinions. Last year, I restricted the candidates to only 2 episodes per series, but I find this year that some shows really aren't trying hard enough, and I'm not going to uphold that restriction this year on some of the more outstanding shows. In light of that, I am therefore extending the list to 50 episodes. No ... that's not a typo. There is some great television out there that a lot of people haven't found. I hope this thread helps you find something that makes you smile.

What does that mean? Well, for starters it means, the list is long ... REALLY long. Adding in my comments on why I selected them, the text alone is close to 150,000 characters (aka 150kB). For most of us, that's no big deal, but for the modem users, that's not very nice. So here's the plan (thanks to Mr. Cling for the suggestion). I have posted 10 episodes at a time -- complete with pictures and my ramblings -- in another thread, starting with 41-50 and working up to the top. After a day or so (depending on the level of discussion or lack thereof), I will move all of that to this modem-unfriendly thread that will remain for the forum archives, and post the next group of 10 in the other thread. Repeat until done. This way, those who are interested now but don't have speedy connections can participate in any discussion without being overwhelmed, but the full list will remain on the server for anyone looking for it in the future. I did write this list from a top -> down perspective, so hopefully grouping them from the bottom -> up won't cause any confusion.

You should keep in mind that this list is made to honor great television, not to attach a specific ordered sequence of quality to each and every episode. So, while you can assume that the #1 episode is "better" than the #50, don't attach too much significance to the order of episodes that appear close to one another on the list.

Without further (long-winded) ado, the list ... as always, I am braced for criticism ... but as always, I won't shy away from defending my choices.

NB: Be aware that there will be unavoidable [size=large]SPOILERS[/size] in the descriptions of these episodes. The list is presented in such a way that you can read the list itself and still skip by any descriptions you don't want to know anything about. There are some pictures with the descriptions, but I've tried hard not to spoil anything with them. The pictures should only make sense if you have foreknowledge of the episode itself.

One final thought: for those of you having trouble wiping the off your face, in my defense I can only say this. Just remember ... you asked for it.

das

[size=large]2002 - 2003 TV Season: Top 50 Dramatic Episodes[/size]

[size=large]#50 - The Sopranos - 'Watching Too Much Television'[/size]   (10.27.02)
Written by: Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess & David Chase, Directed by: John Patterson
"Hey, if it ain't us, it's gonna be somebody else." - Maurice Tiffen

It's painful to select an episode named after a state of being that cannot exist , but in this mid-season episode we set the stage for much of what's to come and are treated to a full range of characterization for many of the main players. Paulie's out of jail, and it's back to business as usual, but he's still holding some ill will over the way he was treated while he's gone, and he's starting to talk out of turn about the family business. Furio and Carmello are starting to realize their feelings for one another, but Furio knows better and takes steps to distance himself from the situation.

Adriana -- who must be commended for her fantastic taste in television shows -- observes a pivotal moment from the first season of Murder One where Julie Costello reveals that she was married to Richard Cross when no one was looking and now cannot be put in the position to testify against him. While this is true, it's not the complete truth, but Adriana hastily runs with it and makes it known to Christopher that she's ready to get married, and soon. Through this, we see the love the two of them have for each other in spite of their destructive relationship and Christopher's unpredictable behavior. He really does love her, and even the afront to his Italian manhood in her potential inability to have children isn't going to stop him from marrying her. It's all just another layer in the warped sense of values maintained within this mobster lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Tony and his assemblyman associate have engaged in an urban housing scam that really is the lowest of the low, and the episode does a great job looking down on the characters for taking part in it, going so far as to have some kid ask the assemblyman if there will finally be some decent houses in his neighborhood. Of course, there won't. They're actually making things worse and in the process ripping off the American taxpayers millions of dollars. Even the biggest fan of Tony and his crew has a hard time sympathizing with this venture, and you can see it on the faces of those who are mixed up in it. "You know I used to think what I did made a difference: the anti-drug programs, voter drives, but over the years, it's like shoveling **** against the tide." They try to justify it to themselves, but it's not working.


[size=large]#49 - Everwood - 'Till Death Do Us Part'[/size]   (11.04.02)
Written by: Oliver Goldstick, Directed by: Michael Schultz
"If you're lucky enough to find the right woman, and she's stupid enough to fall in love with you, you hang on to her like a son of a bitch." - Dr. Andrew Brown

"People go to church for a lot of different reasons: some for community; some for appearances; for others, and it may be a very few, it's a matter of true faith." After 'Deer God', it was clear that Everwood wasn't going to be a heavy-handed preachy show like 7th Heaven, but it wasn't going to hide from religion as a part of a community and the lives of its residents either. This week, we look more at the communal nature of church and how it affects those who are a part of it. "The gift of community is that each one of us is absolved of the burden of completeness."

The plot somewhat thematically centers around marriage as we learn a bit more about the lives of three married couples: Dr. Brown and his deceased wife, Reverend Keyes and his wife who's growing apart from him, and Dr. Abbott who's so content with his life that he takes Rose for granted. Through the lives of the others, each of them is able to find his way, at least for the time being. To maintain the theme and the different stages of marriage represented, some of the story is a bit forced, but it works nonetheless. It's hard to argue with the Reverend and his wife deciding to part ways, and the scenes with Harold and Rose are just too sweet to ignore as we learn so much about these two characters and the life they've built together.

The strength of the episode lies mostly with Dr. Brown, though. It's what would have been his 20th wedding anniversary, and his sorrow is compounded by his inability to keep the Keyes marriage from falling apart. He really has nothing left, and he's just going through the motions of life for his kids, but the emotion of this day becomes too much to bear, and he finally breaks down in his church, begging God to help him find joy in his life once again. What he doesn't know is that Reverend Keyes is also hitting bottom, questioning his faith, and looking for God and meaning. Instead of finding answers from God, he finds Dr. Brown, a broken man, desperately clinging to his own faith. Seeing a man more desperate than him helps the Reverend find renewed purpose in his own life, trying to bring the community together to help this lost soul.

This is also an episode of two major events in Amy's life. She and Ephram share a kiss the day Colin awakens from his coma. For people that don't watch the show, I'm sure that sounds like a bad daytime soap opera plot , but trust me, it's not like that at all. This is it, the moment she's been dreaming about for months, but now she finally has to face the reality of Colin's condition and the associated memory loss. All Amy has wanted is for things to return to the way they were before the accident. For the first time, she realizes that's never going to happen.


[size=large]#48 - Six Feet Under - 'Death Works Overtime'[/size]   (05.11.03)
Written by: Rick Cleveland, Directed by: Daniel Attias
"The timing of this is just so ****ing perfect, it's not even funny." - Claire Fisher

Nothing brings family together like tragedy, and we are reminded of this fact in an episode where death isn't the only thing working overtime. The Fishers are known for burying their emotions -- in fact, denial was probably the family motto before Nathaniel passed away -- but they have 3 funerals to perform back-to-back, and they can't hide from the world right now. Nate's losing his mind over Lisa's disappearance, but he has to work. Claire just found out that she's pregnant, probably with Russell, but they need her to help with all the services. David and Keith are fighting and need to have a serious talk, but David has to work and support Nate. Rico's wife is fighting depression, but with all the bodies, Rico has to work overtime to restore them. And all of them have to help take care of Nate's baby.

It's just too much for everyone, and none of them is able to bury his emotions the way we're so used to seeing. Bottled emotions rise to the surface, and each of them unloads his baggage on someone else. Their problems aren't going to go away, but there's something therapeutic with releasing some of the anger. Interestingly, David ends up being the recipient of almost all of it. He takes it from Rico and Nate and Claire, but when Ruth boils to the point where she's about to unload on him too, she visibly represses it. The arrival of a stranger later that evening looking for his misplaced glasses provides her the opportunity she needs for release. She tried so hard to keep it together for her kids, tried to convince herself that everything would be all right, but she just can't do it anymore.

This is one of those rare episodes where we really see the strength of the Fisher children as a family. They're fiercely independent people who lead their own lives, but Nate's tragedy brings them to comfort him. Similarly, we see the Chenowith's coming together over their own tragedy. The situation between Brenda and Billy is completely f'd up, but they still get together to help their mother figure what to do with their father's ashes. They're horrible at the family dynamic, but they keep trying, and despite their repeated failure, there's still a bond between them that helps them get by. The way this episode closes, with Claire and David embracing Nate as he breaks down is touching, but it's also foreboding as he leaves them in the morning to sit alone in Lisa's abandoned car.


[size=large]#47 - Odyssey 5 - 'Trouble with Harry'[/size]   (09.06.02)
Written by: Alan Brennert, Directed by: Stephen Williams

With so much formulaic work out there, it's refreshing to see new twists on familiar science fiction concepts. In the case of Odyssey 5, a group of astronauts orbiting Earth in a space shuttle are witness to the planet's unexpected and total destruction. Their drifting ship, almost out of air supply and the last breaths of human life, is picked up by an alien who refers to himself as the Seeker. Our Universe is populated with countless planets inhabited with intelligent life, he explains, but a significant number of them has suffered the same fate as the Earth just did. It comes so suddenly and is so destructive that once it happens, there's no way to find out why. In all his travels, this crew of the Odyssey is the only known survivors or this phenomenon. There is no means through which to physically send them back in time, but he does possess the capacity to send their memories back. And so he does, 5 years into the past, the memories of these 5 astronauts and what they've witnessed are absorbed into the bodies of their past selves in the hopes that they can figure out what caused the end of our planet.

It's a cool concept, and the way they develop the characters and the difficult choice of whether to try and stop this thing or spend their second chance at life doing the things they wished they could, is fairly well done. The "science" is a bit off base, but it was still quite entertaining. Unfortunately, it seems the series fell victim to Showtime's confusion on what type of network they wanted to be. First, it seemed they were going to be the gay channel. When that fell through, they created the Sci-Friday line-up, adding Jeremiah and Odyssey 5 to the already successful SG-1. And then they changed gears yet again, sending SG-1 to the Sci-Fi (sic) Channel and dumping this fledgling series. Frustratingly, it happened just as things were starting to get interesting.

In this episode, the wonderfully emotive Ted Raimi guest stars as Harry Mudd (a nice in-joke, made more interesting by the episode airing during Trek's anniversary weekend), a less hostile Sentient than the group is used to. He sheds a lot of light on what's going on. These Sentients grow through absorption of information on the Internet. The strong survive, and those that absorb useless information (pr0n, movie fan sites, message board chatter) are in turn absorbed (or deleted) by more powerful Sentients (those who absorb science and data), the most powerful of which is Phaedra (whom the team has been trying to track for a while now). "Harry" is the rare case that spent all its time learning about comic books and tv shows and all the unique aspects of our humanity and was able to not only survive but hack his way into one synthetic bodies used by other Sentients. Through his desire to learn about humanity, he brings a refreshing outlook to the group and indirectly reminds them of the things they should cherish in their own lives. In the end, what he learns allows him to merge, not battle, with Phaedra (much like something from Star Trek: The Motion Picture), who is tired of fighting. In a touching scene, he gives up his individuality in the spirit of sharing his existence with another. Raimi's such a loveable actor, and he completely sells this role in every way. It's frustrating that we never get to see what was next.


[size=large]#46 - Ed - 'Captain Lucidity'[/size]   (02.26.03)
Written by: Jon Beckerman & Rob Burnett, Directed by: Babu Subramanian
"Face it, Ed, there's one fantasy you're not quite ready to part with." - Carol Vessey (via Ed Stevens' mind)

With shows like Ed and Gilmore girls, finding the line between comedy and drama is really difficult, so selecting episodes for this list isn't exactly a science. I wasn't sure whether to include Ed or not as it does become a bit of a slippery slope if I do, but tough. This episode is just too damn funny. It's almost painful to watch it's so funny. It also furthers the dramatic storyline of the season as Ed starts realizing why he acts the way he does in his romantic relationships.

It's a typical day at the Smiling Goat, and the gang is giving Ed a hard time about his Drive-In move with Frankie, but he's taken interest in an article about Lucid Dreaming that says when you realize you're in your own dream, then you can seize control of it. With the help of some pickles and peanut better before bed, Ed induces such a dream, and the fun begins. What's so brilliant about this episode is how grounded it is in the reality of these characters. Ed's in his own dream, and he has control over events, but everyone in his dream acts exactly to the character's personality. Carol analyzes Ed's situation, Mike reluctantly follows him around on his journey, Phil wants to be President, Molly and Nancy run around his dream trying to spice it up with outrageous fun, and Taye Diggs ... well, he's just there ... and he's really annoyed about it. "I'm gonna need you to find another random celebrity to dream about. I can get you Denzel." It all makes sense and works to perfection as Ed realizes what he needs to do. In so many ways, this episode captures the essence of the quirkiness and beauty of this television show and why so many people can't stay away from it from week to week.


[size=large]#45 - Boomtown - 'Lost Child'[/size]   (04.20.03)
Written by: Michelle Ashford, Directed by: Fred Keller
"That little girl got dealt a bad card. So did you." - Michael Hirsch

After the textured intensity of the previous week's episode focusing on McNorris' battle with alcohol and himself, it was great to see the other side of the spectrum in the season finale with the subdued layers of Joel. The issue of parenting takes center stage as we revisit a storyline that's been part of the backdrop of Joel's life and his interaction with Teresa. After his daughter died, his wife tried to kill herself, and so he buried a second autopsy report in an attempt to move on. But Internal Affairs is revisiting the case, and it's all about to come out.

Again, the show gives us two separate compelling stories that weave within one another but address different issues. At the forefront for much of the episode is Tom's story as the informant for Trumper at IAB. Previous episodes established a hostile relationship between him and Joel, so it's the perfect fit. But Tom gets some much needed character development at the end of the season as we find out who he really is. Not only does he play IAB for fools and twist it back in their face, but his reason for doing it is simple, "because I could." It's a fun story with a good twist, but the heart of this episode is with Joel and his wife Kelly as they cope with the tragic events of that day. She confronts him with the fact that he's had a lingering doubt whether she killed their baby after taking a sleeping pill that made her do crazy stuff in the past, and it's heart-breaking as he tells her why he knows she didn't do anything crazy, that he stayed up all night watching her sleep for the first time in months ... instead of watching the baby. Bad **** happens to people, and there's nothing they could have done about the death of their daughter, but how they react to it and find strength in one another is what puts this episode on the list. As a side note, what kind of name is Pixley?


[size=large]#44 - American Dreams - 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'[/size]   (01.05.03)
Written by: Sherri Cooper, Directed by: David Semel
"Ladies and gentlemen ... the Beatles." - Ed Sullivan

The Beatles are going to be on Ed Sullivan, and no one can think straight. If Patty doesn't help Will memorize his Apostles properly, she won't get to watch. Miss The Beatles? Can anything be worse? Well ... yeah ... depending on your perspective. It's fun to see how the priorities of everyone play out in this episode as "the end of the world" carries a different meaning for everyone. Meg and Luke have been dating, but she really doesn't know if they're boyfriend and girlfriend or not, so Roxanne designs a plan to take him to American Bandstand with them and introduce him to their producer and get him to do the dirty work with leading questions like, "so ... uh ... how do you know Meg?" The scene that plays out is priceless as Michael tries to lead the awkward Luke into saying the words, but it turns to heartbreak as he ultimately says "oh, we're friends." And so the Earth shatters for Meg.

Unfortunately, real problems play out for JJ as he gets word that he has been denied a scholarship to play football at Notre Dame. He can still play, but not on their dime, and the Pryors aren't exactly rolling in the money. Jack tells his son that when you come to a wall, you just have to throw your hat over; once you've done that, you're forced to find a way around or over it. "You've thrown your hat over the wall. Now we'll just have to follow it." He plans with his older (and controlling and annoying) brother to sell half of the store he's worked so hard to build in exchange for financing JJ's first year. For Jack, this is the worst thing imaginable, but attending Notre Dame is JJ's dream ... or is it?

As the family gathers in disarray to watch the Beatles, Will -- who idolizes his older brother -- still can't get the Apostles straight. Trying to put his mind at ease, JJ lets him know that the Notre Dame thing really isn't that important to him. His dream is to be an astronaut, and really, he just wants to go to college. Playing football -- for Notre Dame -- is more his father's dream than his. Overhearing this, Jack bumps into JJ a few moments later in the kitchen and knowingly says, "we'll just throw our hats over a different wall." Meanwhile, the show's about to start, and ... Will still doesn't know his Apostles!!!! NO!!!! Tick, tock, tick, tock. With under a minute to spare he recites them in front of the family, which now includes Roxanne (who's always at the house) and Meg's "friend" Luke. As they gather around for the start of the show, Roxanne hops up to grab a Coke and Luke nonchalantly says, "could you get one for my girlfriend too?"

When this show premiered, I fully expected it to be a cheese-fest with little soul and lots of pop music. Well, there's certainly plenty of pop music (among others) -- which is fine, as the 60's are defined by music -- but there is quite a bit of substance and heart to the show, and I've been pleasantly surprised with the delicate way the growth America faced in this decade is played out through the different family members. American Dreams wasn't the best new series this season, but it was pretty close. Each episode delivered a high level of quality, and you cannot help but feel for these wonderful characters, especially the adorable Meg whose youthful innocence and subsequent facing of the real world mirrors the challenges that faced this nation during those years. The other characters are strong, but we often see the world through her eyes, and she carries much of the show on her back (along with the brilliant Gail O'Grady) ... and she carries it well. I applaud NBC for sticking with this one.


[size=large]#43 - Smallville - 'Rosetta'[/size]   (02.23.03)
Written by: Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, Directed by: James Marshall
"You must write your own destiny, Kal-El." - Dr. Virgil Swann

Smallville finally steps up to try and be more than a simple teen drama. In its first season Smallville stumbled around as a Buffy/Dawson's Creek hybrid Kryptonite monster-of-the-week show. The characters were likeable, but the show was lacking a lot of depth and hadn't really begun to find its direction. Now into its sophomore season, they have continued developing the intriguing relationship between Lex and Clark, but have also stepped things up on the scope and presentation of this story.

Delicately weaving the A and B plots together, this episode is about family. While at school, the characters are tracing their genealogy; and at home, the Kents are preparing for a new baby. The family issue takes on a larger meaning, though, when Clark's recurring dreams and a beacon-like signal from the octagonal key lead him to learning the language in the cave walls and ultimately a meeting with a brilliant and reclusive scientist who picked up a transmission during the famed meteor shower and has spent the rest of his life and fortune decrypting its contents and searching for Clark. In some touching scenes with the great Christopher Reeve, Clark learns about his father, and the fate of his homeworld and gathers the courage to insert the key into his ship and see what all the fuss is about. The result, however, is less than pleasant for the country farm boy who just wants to lead a normal life. "They are a flawed race; rule them with strength, my son."

This episode works on a couple of levels. In the B story, Chloe addresses her feelings for Clark with Lana and ends up making a nice gesture to her by listing her as "Sister" on her genealogy chart, saying that "family" is the people who love you. The episode also pays homage to the Superman legacy in numerous ways, from the name Swann and other subtle in-jokes, to the casting of Reeve, to very well-placed usage of Williams' Superman themes. Even trailing the episode is a heart-warming and humorous ad for Christopher Reeve's Paralysis Foundation with Welling and Reeve cracking up at the end. The series has had its good moments and showed some promise, but this episode gives notice that Smallville can be a player among the great modern genre shows ... can be. The foundation laid down by 'Rosetta' carried well through the end of the season. Let's hope the series can continue growing strong.


[size=large]#42 - Without a Trace - 'Suspect'[/size]   (10.24.02)
Written by: Allison Abner, Directed by: Peter Markle
"Your 15 minutes are over." - Jack Malone

There are many things that make a television show difficult to watch. More often than not, it's because the show just isn't any good. But there's that rare case where a show is so adept at capturing a disturbing aspect of our society that it also serves to disturb the audience. This is just such an episode. A young kid has gone missing from a boarding school, and through investigation, they find more evidence linking the headmaster to inappropriate interaction with his students.

Fearing that the kid will die soon if they don't find him, Jack attempts to identify with the headmaster's twisted mentality and promises him that when they find the kid, he'll allow the guy some alone time with him. The race to find the boy -- who has been captive without nourishment (since the headmaster has been under the microscope and couldn't attend to him) -- is successful, and the pervert turns to Jack, with an almost orgasmic look on his face, asking when he gets his 15 minutes? It's sickening, but one of the things I love about this show is that it doesn't shy away from the horrors of this job. To find these people before it's too late, they sometimes have to partake in some disturbing interaction with criminals. As the episode closes, we see that Jack's not just a cold lead detective as even he can't stomach the experience and vomits off on the side. As a side note for this series, the use of music is very well done, and this episode is no exception as Moby's "One of These Mornings" plays hauntingly over the background of these closing rain-soaked scenes.


[size=large]#41 - Angel - 'Apocalypse, Nowish'[/size]   (11.17.02)
Written by: Steven S. DeKnight, Directed by: Vern Gillum
"Might wanna hold the glow, Chuckles. We're just getting started." - Angel

While a solid episode, this one is making the list in large part due to a wonderfully choreographed closing action sequence. Cordelia's back from on high, and she has her memories of whatever it was that she saw, and it's not good. She now not only knows about Angel's past but has lived it and can't allow herself to be with him. Fred is unable to forgive Gunn for killing the professor in her place. Wesley and Lilah are simply pathetic. And, oh yeah, the phones are ringing off the hook with reports of pre-apocalyptic occurrences such as rat plagues and sparrows falling en masse from the sky. So, it certainly doesn't help matters too much when a badass beastie rises from the earth at the precise point where Connor was born amid the death of Darla.

Have no fear, though, because Angel Investigations always saves the day. Through an admittedly silly series of clues, the gang tracks down where they believe this beast to be hanging out, so they arm themselves to the nines and head to the rooftop of some converted nightclub. There they find stacks of bodies and a towering hoofed badass munching on corpses. Angel has many great fight scenes, but all too often the darkened color along with quick camera cuts make it less than ideal -- hard to fault really, what with a TV budget. Here, however, we get the real thing, with Wesley going double handgun John Woo and everything. Earlier in the episode, when the beast rises from the earth, the special effects are about as cheesy as have been seen on the show, and one had to hope that it was because they were saving the budget for something better ... which they were. A drawn out multifaceted attack proves useless as the beast tears apart the group and plants a stake in Angel's neck, something that's a bit on the painful side, even for the undead.

As if things weren't bad enough, the beast slams his fist into the ground and unleashes a swirling storm that blocks out the sun and rains fire (yes, fire) down onto Los Angeles, marking one of the few times that the Buffyverse has stepped outside of its small circle of influence to affect larger and noticeable change in the overall world. The episode closes with Connor and Cordy at the lowest of the low. Connor believes he's the reason that all this is going down, which isn't particularly good to be piled on his typically brooding nature. Cordy, on the other hand, has convinced herself that this is the end. The visions she's had have been so terrifying, and the fear she feels so overwhelming that this is rock bottom for her, and she has given up hope. "You never had a childhood or a family or friends or anything that's real, and if this is the end, I want you to have something that is." And with that, she and Connor set forth in motion the plot that will dominate the rest of the season ... while Angel watches ... oh, and fire rains down on the city.

As a side note, it's difficult to know how much of this season was hastily thrown together, as much of it is inconsistent and ambiguous, and while the ultimate resolution to the season makes sense, it still has an awkward feel about it. However, it's interesting to note a nice little foreboding moment after the beast has risen. He grabs Cordy and holds her up to the sky and then hesitates with some vague recognition only to be taken off guard by Connor. He, of course, dismisses Connor quite easily and returns his attention to Cordy. There's a long pause, and what almost appears to be a subconscious twitch from Cordy, followed by a chuckle from the beast as Connor continues to defend her. At the time, it was easy to attribute this to her previous deity status, but in light of what plays out through the rest of the season, it's a telling moment.

[size=large]#40 - The Dead Zone - 'Wheel of Fortune'[/size]   (06.16.02)
Written by: Michael Piller, Story by: Michael Piller & Shawn Piller, Directed by: Robert Lieberman
"This is nature's tapestry, people ... and it absolutely never fails to astonish." - Johnny Smith

I love surprises. Stephen King is a talented author, but his work frequently turns to crap when translated to the small screen (or the big one). In the hands of talented people, though, magic can happen. Talented people like Michael Piller and ... Anthony Michael Hall? Yep. Michael Piller established himself with some of the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes and helped lay the foundations for Deep Space Nine and Voyager. In the right circumstances it was clear that he could do some great things. Anthony Michael Hall, though, is a bit of a surprise. He's done some good work since his John Hughes days -- most notably an impressive turn as Bill Gates in the telefilm Pirates of Silicon Valley -- but I'm not sure it was fair to expect he'd be able to carry a dramatic fantasy series so well. In fact, you really have to commend the producers for showing faith in his talent to cast someone who is so well-known for a completely different genre -- and era -- of entertainment.

The balance he creates in this episode is wonderful. Unlike the eternally creepy Christopher Walken, Hall looks like an everyman, and as the opening credits state, he had the perfect life. It's important for the audience to completely identify with the horrible situation he faces from a sympathy standpoint and yet still feel a bit freaked when he latches on to a vision and channels 1970s Malcolm McDowell. Selecting an episode for this series is difficult as each contains a unique perspective, but I think it's important to recognize this premiere as it lays the groundwork for what turns out to be a very solid series that doesn't cheat the audience and really thinks outside the box when exploring the potential of Johnny's power. Instead of a formulaic detective show, The Dead Zone has shown considerable creative vision and has been a welcome surprise to the television lineup.


[size=large]#39 - 24 - 'Day 2, 10:00PM - 11:00PM'[/size]   (03.04.03)
Written by: Robert Cochran, Directed by: Ian Toynton
"I don't claim to have control of events, but confess plainly that events have control of me." - President David Palmer quoting President Abraham Lincoln

Ah ... 24 ... the self-proclaimed greatest show in the history of television. I've been a vocal critic of this series -- probably more so due to all the critics falling over themselves to proclaim its brilliance. For all its incredible intensity, too much time is devoted to completely laughable subplots, some of which would be rejected by even the trashiest of daytime soaps. In a series that depends on the audience caring about the safety of its characters, it's difficult to have empathy for those who act so absurdly, particularly Jack's family. In part, it almost angers me as a viewer to be so cheaply manipulated by such nonsense in the face of two of the best dramatic performances on all of television with Dennis Haysbert and Kiefer Sutherland. Wasted potential is painful and frustrating to observe.

That being said, when focusing on its strengths, 24 can be the most intense show on television, and from the start of this episode, the viewer is made aware that we won't be traveling down familiar eye-rolling paths when Kim refuses to hitch a ride with an unseemly character. It's made even better when she's picked up by the wonderful Susan Gibney in a nice guest turn that speaks volumes of emotion with subtle glances. Ironically, for as much as I enjoy the intensity of this show, this episode takes a step back and slows the pace, focusing almost entirely on Jack's decision to crash the plane that will detonate the bomb safely in the desert and end his own life. Kim's character has become a complete joke, so much in fact that at times I am forced to wonder if the writers don't simply give her certain scenes so they can laugh at her in the break room at work (cougar, anyone?). And yet, all of that melts away as she ceases to be a big-breasted bimbo in distress and becomes Jack's innocent daughter once again, who lost her mother 2 years ago and is now about to lose her father from a distance. Their phone conversation is beautifully presented, and even the most jaded viewer can't help feel the emotion of the event.

In the audience, we know there's no chance in hell they'd kill off Jack at this point in the show, so it's no great surprise that Mason conveniently turns up to save the day. The moment works, however, as he delivers a fitting speech to Jack, who's had a death wish since this season began. "You want to be a real hero? Here's what you do. You get back down there, and you put the pieces together. You find a way to forgive yourself for what happened to your wife. You make things right with your daughter and go on serving your country. That'd take some real guts." It all fits together nicely in a solid hour of television free of the pitfalls the show has stumbled into before. Added to the success of the dramatic presentation is how well they elevate the intensity of the show midway through. What started off as a rush to stop a nuclear bomb from detonating in Los Angeles (a consequence the audience knows will never actually happen) escalates into a path to World War III as the show has the courage to actually detonate the bomb somewhere with 9 episodes left and spend the rest of the season facing the consequences.


[size=large]#38 - Mister Sterling - 'Final Passage'[/size]   (03.14.03)
Written by: Paul Haggis & Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., Directed by: Paul Michael Glaser
"Bigger picture, huh?" - Bill Sterling

Before you ask, no, I didn't pick this because it was directed by Starsky. It was bound to happen ... only a matter of time before Mr. Sterling went down the path of what had to have been a large inspiration for the series in the first place: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. After being promised the unimpeded inclusion of his prison education program in an important education bill, Sterling is shocked to find that his program got bumped in favor of a different arts education program that he also supported during committee in what is clearly a power play that can be dismissed as a simple mistake. The bill is closed and is up for final passage, so there's nothing Sterling could do even if he wanted. Disgusted, he informs the majority leader that he will fight for this and takes to the floor to rant about it before hopping on a plane to testify at a parole board hearing for a prisoner who has actually benefited from the very type program he's trying to get implemented. While he's talking, though, and without any apparent forethought, he convinces himself to engage in a Quixotic filibuster over a bill he cannot change ... or can he?

Luck would have it (as often does in TV Land ) that the next day is the final session before recess, and if they don't pass a rise in the Debt Ceiling, the American economy will be devalued, and all hell will break loose in the markets. And so we are engaged in a Senatorial game of "chicken." Is Sterling crazy enough to run them over the deadline? As the night progresses, the powers that be engage in some serious hardball as they arrange it so that the parole board hearing cannot be moved, and Sterling has to choose which is more important. He remains on the floor. Next they get the House to pass the move of the Debt Ceiling and adjourn meaning that even if he can get the program past the Senate, the House is already gone. He can't win. He remains on the floor. With the clock ticking and time running out, they agree to a concurrent resolution to amend the bill before it goes to the President. As long as no one objects to a lack of quorum in the House, the resolution will pass, and he will win. Unfortunately, there's only one program in the bill that won't trigger an objection in the House ... the art program he fought for earlier on behalf of a friend. He takes the deal.

It's really a shame that NBC didn't give Mr. Sterling much of a fighting chance. Who wants to watch an intellectual show about politics on Friday nights? This episode was a fine example of what the show aspired to be. It wasn't mean spirited, but it didn't sugarcoat things either. While presenting a solid dramatic program, it also provided some good insight into Congress and the many issues faced by American politicians. Most of all, it had a hopeful outlook for the future and a desire to make positive change. Capra would have been proud.


[size=large]#37 - Buffy, the Vampire Slayer - 'Storyteller'[/size]   (02.25.03)
Written by: Jane Espenson, Directed by: Marita Grabiak
"So, this is my redemption." - Andrew Wells

You really have to admire a show that can so fluidly poke fun at itself without actually breaking the proverbial 4th wall. Part of what has elevated Buffy, the Vampire Slayer to one of the best series on network television is its amazing ability to balance horror with camp, drama with comedy, and grand themes with self mockery. It takes itself seriously but always saves a moment to step back and laugh at itself. The "documentary episode" is nothing new -- recently we've seen it with Just Shoot Me, Babylon 5, and Farscape -- but it's always told from the perspective of an outsider. In a bit of a twist, this story is told from the perspective of a major character, who in his own way is a bit of an outsider, but to the chagrin of most involved, is inevitably part of the team.

Since Andrew appeared last season, fans have wondered what the hell he was doing on the show. Jonathan had been around since the beginning, and Warren built an angry robotic girlfriend, but Andrew? Oh, he's Tucker's brother? Whatever. The sexually confused dorklord didn't completely fit in the Troika, and he doesn't much fit with the Scoobies either. To compensate, the writers seem to have given him quite a bit of what would have been Xander's lines, and he's starting to become a somewhat endearing character, but this is the episode that not only offers a glimpse of the character's redemption but initiates him into the gang as a bona fide character and a source of unending comic relief.

True to form, 'Storyteller' pokes fun at numerous aspects of the show's 7-year run, with Anya noting that "Buffy seems to think this apocalypse is going to actually be ... apocalyptic" and Andrew filming Willow's attempts to keep from yawning during another of Buffy's long and boring speeches (something the fans had been complaining about). There are so many great moments, from Andrew noticing Xander's craftsmanship on a new window instead of the two hot lesbians passionately kissing before him, to Andrew replaying Xander and Anya's scene over and over while mouthing the words, to Andrew doing just about anything. And it all ends nicely with a good redemptive scene reminiscent of Buffy's talk with Jonathan in 'Earshot'. 'Storyteller' is a much needed and highly creative break from the doom and gloom of the season.


[size=large]#36 - NYPD Blue - 'Nude Awakening'[/size]   (02.25.03)
Written by: Matt Olmstead, Story by: Bill Clark & Matt Olmstead, Directed by: Mark Tinker
"I just want some peace." - John Clark, Sr.

How do you keep a cop drama running strong after so many seasons? Having Mark Tinker on your team is a good start, and leaning on the limitless talent of Dennis Franz isn't a bad idea either, but even with that, you need new blood, and that's what Mark Paul Gosselaar has surprisingly brought to the series. His work last year was outstanding, and this season is no different. Two powerful stories are told in this episode, one that comes from the place you would least expect it.

Our friendly snitch Julian is in trouble again after someone tries to kill him, but he doesn't know who it is. After some investigation and a nice sting operation, they realize it's his wife that hired someone to kill him. Julian's a punk who's always looking for an angle, but this really devastates him. Meanwhile a woman raises hell over being conned out of $100. They find out that she just lost her son to a drunk driver a few weeks back, and it's likely that she's channeling that anger into this simple con. There's no way they'll ever find the girl who ripped her off, so they collect a bunch of cash around the office to say they got the money, but the perp ran off in an attempt to give her some peace of mind. Moved by the whole thing, Julian -- who's still at the station -- volunteers to play the part of the perp's ashamed husband, so he can apologize to this woman for the wrong committed against her in hopes of easing her pain. The scene that develops between these two unlikely characters who have both experienced a tragic loss is remarkable. This moment is underscored, unfortunately, by John Jr. finding his father's body in his apartment after committing suicide. Sipowicz quickly assesses the situation as an accidental death while cleaning his gun and insists that's what went down, but everyone knows the truth, and the episode ends with John watching an apologetic suicide tape from his father. He knows what he's about to do is the worst of sins, but he just cannot take the pain anymore. It's a very difficult scene to watch but a reminder that this show still can deliver the goods when it wants to.


[size=large]#35 - Alias - 'The Telling'[/size]   (05.04.03)
Written by: J.J. Abrams, Directed by: J.J. Abrams
"Ultimately, you'll do whatever you want. That's what free will's all about." - Irina Derevko

Uh ... Last year, Alias stormed onto the television scene with a 99-minute uninterrupted tour-de-force presentation that knocked us completely on our asses. It was fresh and energetic and kicked all kinds of ass. With this episode, it wraps its second season, and any attempt for me to explain the countless interwoven stories that fold in upon one another would be pointless. Just getting through the first season and a half would be difficult enough, but adding the developments presented in the Super Bowl episode, and it's enough to make your head spin Linda Blair style.

One of the things I really liked about this episode is how the audience isn't the only one reeling from all the deception and double-talk. Sydney is finally starting to lose her mental grasp of the overall situation. In conversations with Irina, she knows she's being manipulated, but she can't figure out why or in what way. It's the classic "if you know I know that you know what I know" mind bend. Conventional logic says if you know your enemy will always act against you, then he's your most trusted source, since his actions are predictable. No logic works for Irina, though. You cannot trust her to act against you ... or for you ... or even for herself. Just when you think you have a glimpse of her motivations, you find you really don't know anything at all.

In many ways, that's the story of this series too. Just when we think we have a handle on everything that's going on, the rug is yanked out from under us ... again. And so it is with this jaw-dropping season finale. It could have worked better had Francie/Allison been a better villain (they quickly try to toss some character development her way at the last minute, but it's too little too late); still, the overall story works in spite of that. Great fight sequences are hard to come by in television. Budgetary and time constraints often just make it too difficult to manage, but somehow Alias is able to deliver week after week, and the much-awaited showdown between the annoying Double and our loveable heroine doesn't disappoint, climaxing with Sydney slashing her adversary's throat with a broken shard of glass. Well, that's that then. Wrap up the season. See ya next year. Yeah, right. In yet another bold maneuver by this constantly evolving series, the show is turned on its ear once more, as Sydney mysteriously wakes up 2 years in the future, and the familiar title card slams on the screen, almost taunting the audience: ALIAS


[size=large]#34 - Boomtown - 'Blackout'[/size]   (04.13.03)
Written by: Fred Golan, Directed by: Jack Bender
"Sorry, Pop ... can't fix this one." - David McNorris

You really can't have too much of David McNorris. The man is just electrifying on the screen. In the background of this season (and in the foreground in 'The David McNorris Show'), we've been building to this point. He may have crossed the morality line with the Hollywood producer, but he hadn't hit rock bottom yet. In this episode, he very well may have. After a night of vicious alcohol abuse, he awakens in his car on his lawn, with a smashed headlight that's caked with blood. Shortly thereafter he hears the report of a homeless man who was run down that evening, and he sets on a course to cover his ass.

This descent in the depths of his own inner hell is brilliantly played, and while the scenes of Ray screwing with him by letting him stew in the interrogation room are wonderful, the best scenes are in his garage as he's arguing (often with his father) in his mind and aloud trying to figure out how to sell this thing, first as a lawyer, then as a defendant. He runs through all the excuses, all the angles on how to get away with this, and some of them actually sound good, but he can't do it. It's over. Another reason I've recognized this episode is a scene between Andrea Little and (the former) Mrs. McNorris. Andrea's been there. She knows where this is heading, and she knows that he doesn't love her enough for her to get through to him. So she heads to Marian's house, and pleads with her to step in and help save him. Andrea's an incredibly strong woman, and that makes the scene all the more valuable. David's character has been great all season, and it will be interesting to see how they handle him when he returns from his rehab.


[size=large]#33 - The Shield - 'Scar Tissue'[/size]   (02.25.03)
Written by: Kurt Sutter, Directed by: Paris Barclay
"Every scar is a victory." - Armadillo

Armadillo steps up the game by delivering a return facial on Ronnie, and the Strike Team's through playing games. They hit the streets looking for him, roughing up everyone they can find, dropping cash on the street, until they track him down. Just as they are about to get their revenge, he calls the cops and turns himself in. This gives Claudette the chance to get some answers, but Armadillo's too sharp for that, and he tries to manipulate Vic into getting Ronnie to recant his statement and letting him escape back to Mexico. With all that has happened with his family and the independent auditor, he's really left with no choice and decides to take the fall for the team.

But Shane and the gang step up big and are able to get one of Armadillo's discarded enemies to brutally stab him in the holding cell. This works out great for Vic, but for Danny who's on the heels of an inquiry and is just now starting to find her talent in detective work, it spells disaster, since she's the one who searched the guy for a weapon before bringing him in. A victim of circumstance, she's been a good officer and hasn't done anything wrong, and yet her life is getting turned upside down while Vic skates. Claudette knows the truth though and confronts both Aceveda and Vic about it. As the closest thing to a completely honorable character on the show, she is disgusted with how everything has played out ... but she'll get her chance ... and soon.


[size=large]#32 - Six Feet Under - 'Timing & Space'[/size]   (04.13.03)
Written by: Craig Wright, Directed by: Nicole Holofcener
"Life ... it comes and gets you, doesn't it?" - Nate Fisher

As we fade in on this episode, we immediately realize where it's going, and no dialogue is necessary ... just familiar scenes of family sitting around a hospital bed. We're so anxious for Brenda to return to the series in a fulltime capacity, but this isn't the way we want it to happen. A constant theme in this series is how tragedy brings family together, and that plays out again in this episode. We've gotten to know the crazy side of the Chenowith family a couple of times, but it's nice to spend some time with them in another setting and see that tragedy affects loonies much the same way it affects the rest of us.

This is a difficult episode as the primary death hits so close to home, but it is balanced with quite a bit of humor. In fact it gives us one of the series' funniest moments. Poor Arthur goes for a run for the first time in his life, and Ruth's fascination with him compels her to secretly watch him. Upon seeing him after this deception, her mind's fear is greeted with his outrage: "Hi, Ruth ... did you enjoy stalking me this morning? If you like following people so much, why don't you join the CIA? Or the Moonies? Or why don't you go to the actual ****ing moon and mind your own moon business ... you FREAK!"

This episode is about Nate and Brenda, though. They really get a chance to sit and talk with each other where neither of them has the upper hand. Their lives have diverged, but they are still connected; each of them has profoundly affected the life of the other. Nate acknowledges that Brenda woke him up; he was just stumbling through life until he met her. For Brenda, Nate's the first person she's hurt where she really lost something. She's screwed up before, but it's never actually meant anything. In a way, they had to screw up each other's lives to grow into people who could be content with one another. "You know what I think ... about life? I think it's all about timing. I think timing is everything."

While Keith doesn't have the best of times at his party, and the fallout between Nate and Lisa is beginning, there's just something peaceful about this episode. There's so much aggression and frustration in this season that it was nice to take a break and reflect a bit. Arthur's message to his relatives as the episode is drawing to a close provides a calming effect, along with his light music and Ruth's dancing from earlier. The final scene with Nate quietly wondering if he's happy or not is underscored by light piano and violins and is soothing and calming, but we realize it's a calm before a storm.


[size=large]#31 - Everwood - 'The Unveiling'[/size]   (02.24.03)
Written by: Greg Berlanti & Rina Mimoun, Directed by: Michael Schultz
"It's ok ... I don't need her to be perfect anymore." - Ephram Brown

Music is such an important part of this series and the lives of its characters. Julia would always make mix tapes for Dr. Brown before he performed surgery, and Ephram's piano playing is such an integral part of who he is as a person. As the anniversary of his mother's death approaches, a familiar piano piece brings back memories of how perfect his mother was and how her relationship with his father was deteriorating. So much credit for this series must be given to the brief appearances by Brenda Strong whose strength as a character makes her loss affect the audience as profoundly as it affects the characters on the show. The way the flashback scenes weave in discarded comments from earlier in the series only enhances the reality of this loss.

The Unveiling is a Jewish ceremony performed a year after a loved one's death where family and friends gather to "unveil" the headstone, signifying the soul is finally at peace in Heaven. As the Browns prepare for the ceremony, we find that there's more to the unveiling than any of us understood. As the episode unfolds and the memories play out, we see just how involved Julia was in Ephram's everyday life and how frequently she found herself in the position of defending his father from the anger he felt over his never being around. Before Julia died, she had a big fight with Andy (which Ephram overheard while practicing this particular piano piece), and he left for a trip to Boston. Ephram checked up on him, though, and there was no medical conference, no trip to Boston. He was having an affair, and Ephram has carried with him such anger over that knowledge, and he finally confronts his father about it. At this moment, we see a Dr. Brown we haven't seen before as his eyes adopt a fiery intensity over the accusation and he nearly threatens his son for making it. And then it comes out ... no, he didn't go to Boston. He stayed at a local hotel, because he couldn't face the situation anymore ... that Julia had met someone else ... that he had been such a horrible husband and father that even the most devoted wife and mother had to find comfort in another. He can't fault her for it, and he's hidden it from Ephram to avoid hurting him and destroying his memory of his amazing mother. Together they make peace with each other and their mutual loss.

This episode also marks a very brave but realistic development for Amy. Up to this point, if you've watched this show and haven't fallen completely in love with Amy, then you need to see a doctor. She's everything you could ever want: kind, beautiful, funny, beautiful, smart, beautiful and beautiful. However, she's also a teenage girl, and for as mature as she often is, she still will have those moments where her actions are downright ugly. As Colin's condition is worsening and he's upset at her for mentioning his vomiting, she turns much of her anger on her father, pushing him away for something that's not really his fault anyway. Slowly she's been pushing away all her friends and focusing all her attention on Colin. It's perfectly understandable and incredibly realistic, but it's also painful to watch. It takes courage to take your most loveable character and show the side of her that isn't pretty. In an episode where we delicately find out that Ephram's mother isn't perfect, we see the same with Amy.

[size=large]#30 - Firefly - 'Ariel'[/size]   (11.15.02)
Written by: Jose Molina, Directed by: Allan Kroeker
"Make something up. Don't tell 'em what I did." - Jayne Cobb

I blame Fox. Say whatever you want about the episodes themselves, but I'm confident Fox intentionally buried this show. Either that, or those in charge of programming are just plain stupid, and I'm sure they'd find a nice career at the Sci-Fi (sic) Channel. Between the on again / off again 3rd season of Dark Angel and this series, it seems Fox just got stuck with something they never wanted in the first place, so they dumped it off on Friday nights where many shows go to die. That in and of itself may not have been that big a deal, but for reasons that make no sense once you've seen 'Serenity', they chose to start with 'The Train Job'. It's an OK episode, I guess, but it is confusing as a starting point, makes the series appear like a bad Western without any direction, and doesn't show off many of the series' strengths. Watched after 'Serenity', however, it makes perfect sense. I don't get it. You have all the talented people behind an immensely popular arc-based series working for what appears to be another, and you sabotage it on the first day? Had 'Serenity' been bad, that would maybe make sense, but it's not. In fact, it's very good. In fact, it's precisely what a premiere episode should be. It's hard to say how Firefly would have done in other circumstances, but it wasn't even given a fighting chance. (Hell, Fox Latin America even aired the "unaired" episodes in the wrong -- and confusing -- order.) It was dead before it started, and how much that truly sucks can be found from watching 'Ariel'.

This is the episode that has everything and gives us indication of just how good this show was trying to be. In addition to addressing the over arcing plot and giving us some understanding of what the deal is with River, we get some serious character development for Simon, Jayne, and even Mal. For the first time, River does something truly disturbing. Up until now, she's just been stumbling around as a rambling nuisance, but as this episode begins she nonchalantly slashes Jayne across the chest with a knife for no apparent reason and then blankly stares at him: "he looks better in red." Things have to change, so they plan a job to get into an Alliance military facility and try to examine her. As they break in, we see just how good a doctor Simon was supposed to be. He's not just the fancy-pants caretaker of his sister, but he was one of the best doctors around and really was going to be something special before his life got derailed with his sister's capture. He also displays quite a bit of courage as he stands up to the Alliance officers who capture him. Yes, he is captured, and because Jayne betrays them for a reward. In 'Jaynestown' we got to see the human side of this character, so it's painful to see him turn on these two. In his mind, it's not a big betrayal ... this is the way of things. They may be on the same ship, but they have no overriding loyalty to one another. In a poor show of judgment, the Alliance officer double-crosses Jayne, which pisses him off and leads to his escape and sets up probably the best scene in this show's short run.

Mal's no idiot, and he knows Jayne alerted the authorities. When the others aren't around, he cracks him over the head and prepares to space him from the ship as they leave atmo. Jayne tries to rationalize it. It's not like he betrayed Mal ... he just turned on their annoying passengers. Mal forcefully explains that they're part of his crew, and if you turn on them, then you turn on him. The scene works ever better for those of us familiar with Buffy and Angel, because we know Mutant Enemy shows don't shy away from killing major characters when it serves the story. The way the scene is played, you really get the feeling that Mal's not trying to scare Jayne ... he really is going to space him. Yet at his weakest moment, Jayne shows the side of him worth saving, the human part of him that has grown from his journeys with Mal on this ship, as he asks Mal not to tell the others what he did. He truly is ashamed of what he's done ... and Mal doesn't kill him. The intensity of that scene showed off the chemistry of these actors and the talent working on this series. In its short run, it displayed the great balance of action, drama, comedy, and heart that we've come to expect from Joss' work. When 'The Train Job' first aired, I didn't know what to think. Having now seen all the episodes, including the ones Fox refused to air in the US, I see just how tragic it is that they never gave Firefly a fair chance.


[size=large]#29 - American Dreams - 'City on Fire'[/size]   (05.18.03)
Written by: Jonathan Prince, Directed by: David Semel
"We have the capacity to make this the best generation in the history of mankind ... or make it the last." - Robert Kennedy (paraphrasing his brother, John)

For a show that is known for its intense level of overlapping dialogue, its most important moments require not a single word. No more is this apparent in the powerful season finale. You cannot tell the story of the quintessential American family in the 1960's without the music of the times or the social unrest, and this episode does an excellent job capturing the essence of both. JJ's knee hasn't healed completely, and he's just not in condition to maintain a scholarship for Lehigh and is forced to evaluate what he wants to do with his life. We see how much he's grown this year as playing football for Notre Dame has taken a backseat to simply getting a college education, and he decides that will come in the form of service in the Marines. Returning home to break the news to his family, he faces strong opposition from both his mother and his girlfriend Beth. Meanwhile Meg decides she'll head to North Philly and her father's second store to bring Sam one of the licorice records she's made for a party at her house that he has chosen not to attend as her only Black friend. He wants to hide from being her friend, but she's not willing to give up on him yet ... and we quickly find out that neither is he.

Recent riots in Harlem have the city on edge, and a curfew is declared for the North Philly area angering the local citizens who have been voicing unrest for quite some time now. A relatively innocent situation turns ugly as a police officer tries to enforce the curfew with vocal attitude and is greeted with indignant refusal to cooperate. Two scenes are nicely folded into one another showing police officers discussing a distorted version of the events while Black witnesses discuss another distorted version, each twisting the tale into horrible actions from the other, and the situation quickly spirals out of control to the point where North Philly finds itself embroiled in a self-destructing riot itself. Meg, however, is stuck at the store and being the Whitest girl on the face of the planet doesn't particularly feel safe striking out for home on the public transportation. Much of this plays out during the filming of an episode of American Bandstand, and as usual, the song selection is appropriate and a bit haunting as "Nowhere to Run" by Martha and the Vandellas plays over the scenes of rioting and the faces of those who live there and cannot stop what's about to happen.

As Pete arrives at the store in search of Meg and Sam, he sees the destruction and calls Jack's home. JJ takes the phone, though, as Jack has already taken off to search for them, and in a beautifully brief moment Pete mistakes JJ for his father and makes a passing comment that he sounds just like him. JJ then decides he's going to look for them too, and as he prepares to exit, his mother says "Jack ... be careful" marking the first time I can remember her ever not calling him JJ. The acceptance that he has grown up and can make his own decisions is told only with a look on Gail O'Grady's face. Things get worse as Pete tries to help Nathan escape by "arresting" him so he can get out, but rabble rouser Willie Johnson attacks Pete from behind, triggering another officer to shoot him in the street for all to see. "Let it burn" is the word that comes from the Chief, and the police pull out, tearing Meg away from Sam as he cradles the dying Johnson in his arms, and the look of horror on her face and total loss of innocence is haunting as she is shoved into the back of a police car and driven away from the enflamed city behind.


[size=large]#28 - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - 'Fallacy'[/size]   (04.18.03)
Written by: Barbie Kligman, Story by: Josh Kotcheff & Barbie Kligman, Directed by: Juan J. Campanella
"You did your job." - Olivia Benson

Remember when Law & Order was the best show on television? Before NBC's apparent mandate that "it wouldn't be Law & Order without a twist ending." Ah, the good ol' days. It's still a good show, and the Criminal Intent spinoff has provided some pretty creepy villains, but they both exist in the spotlight of major primetime timeslots and as such seem to be sticking to safe formulas. SVU, however, rides along on Friday nights without much fanfare and pushes the envelope more the way the original show used to. It's not every week, mind you, but it is with greater consistency, and in this late season episode we are presented with a classic Law & Order moral dilemma along with a powerful conclusion.

While investigating the alleged rape of a young girl at a house party and subsequent death of the man who was accused, Benson and Stabler find that the girl (Cheryl) isn't completely a girl yet, but a pre-op tranny. The self-defense story doesn't fit anymore, and she admits that she hit the guy from behind to keep him from spreading her secret. Things get worse, though, as Cheryl's boyfriend ODs on medication after being so sickened from the revelation that his girlfriend is actually a Charlie. After further investigation, neither Benson nor Huang things she genuinely intended to kill the guy, so Cabot reluctantly offers a deal for 1st Degree Manslaughter.

Of course, there's yet another snag. Cheryl's being defended pro bono by a grandstanding publicity hound who wants to use her as the posterchild for human rights issues, and he doesn't even make her aware of the deal. Cabot senses something is wrong and contacts her directly, informing her of the offered deal and convincing her that it's in her best interests to take it: 5 years on Man 1 is much better than a high chance of 15 - Life. She takes the deal ... and then it hits. Legally, she's still a he, and he's going to a male prison. Her attorney conveniently never told her this before accepting the deal so he could further grandstand this human rights issue in the public eye. In every emotional way possible, Cheryl is a woman. Cabot empathizes with this and is able to get the deal revoked so they can at least go to trial. This means, unfortunately, that she now has to try a case she doesn't believe in, knowing full well that the jury will more than likely convict her based more on her transgender status than the actual facts of the case. Cabot tries the case fairly but strongly ... and wins. Predictably, Cheryl is beaten senseless and gang-raped in Rikers before the evening ends.

This episode was Law & Order at its best with ethical questions in all directions. The writers don't attempt to make any statements about what should be the answer; they just pose the questions, and let intelligent characters on both sides of the issue present the cases. It's a shame it takes an episode designed to set up the departure of Stephanie March to bring such great character development to Cabot.


[size=large]#27 - Six Feet Under - 'Twilight'[/size]   (05.18.03)
Written by: Craig Wright, Directed by: Kathy Bates
"Sedation ... that's Twilight. You're not really gone, but ... you're not really here." - Nurse

As the last episode before the season finale, this one is difficult to watch as Nate sinks further into his own darkness. He becomes consumed with the endless possibilities of what could have happened to Lisa, and he's just stumbling along through life, pushing away those who try to help him. His grief over the loss, compounded by his guilt over unhappiness with their marriage, becomes so overwhelming that he finds brief comfort in a strange girl who's descending into her own sleepwalk through life. In his own way, David has been sleepwalking through his relationship with Keith. "I'm so bored with this unhappiness. I think I'm ready for some new unhappiness." He too finds comfort in the arms of another. Neither Nate nor David gains any lasting strength from these encounters, though. They just do it to try and feel something ... anything ... different from what they've been dealing with. Poor Claire isn't doing any better as the realization of her unwanted pregnancy leads her to get an abortion, and she goes through the whole process as if in a dream, just going through the motions.

On the flip side, Ruth is finally starting to break out of the life she's been living for so long. She's come to realize that life it too short and too precious not to experience it while you have the chance. She could wait to see if George is the right man, what for things to be just right, or she could just enjoy it while she has it. Father Jack tells David not to waste all his energy on the life he could have but to find answers in the life he does have, and in a way, that's what Ruth is doing. It's hard to describe this episode, because of the dark subject matter, but it plays out in a very impressive fashion, particularly a sequence between Brenda and Claire in the car that seamlessly merges into David's chorus singing a rather haunting version of "Beautiful Dreamer." Kathy Bates is truly an impressive director, and while I enjoy seeing her gifts in front of the camera, I really hope she continues to work behind the scenes on great television shows.


[size=large]#26 - Alias - 'The Abduction'[/size]   (12.15.02) / [size=large]'A Higher Echelon'[/size]   (01.05.03)
Written by: Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, Directed by: Nelson McCormick / Written by: John Eisendrath, Directed by: Guy Bee
"My name is Marshall J. Flinkman ... and I'm here to rescue you." - Marshall J. Flinkman

OK, so I'm cheating a bit, but really ... these are just two parts of the same episode. Cut me some slack!

Yes! The moment we've all been waiting for. Circumstances arrange in such a way that Marshall has to go in the field. Upon hearing the instructions, the only way he can respond is, "Marshall who?" He's been an endearing source of comic relief since the show began, but only in limited quantities. In this episode, he gets his chance to shine, and he does it radiantly. Of course, he's going to see (and remember) the important data that must be hidden from SD-6, so the counter-mission is to extract him, something that Syd notes will be a crushing blow. It means everything to him that he's fighting the good fight, and to learn that he's been on the wrong side all this time will be devastating. In the end, though, it's inevitable, so it should be a good thing.

The ensuing caper is absolutely hilarious. From Marshall's fear of flying and hacking into the flight computers to make sure the landing gear is functioning within established parameters to his bumbling attempts at a British accent for their cover, the timing is dead on at every moment, culminating in one of the show's best scenes. In a showdown with some security personnel, Marshall is hit with a tranquilizer dart. Syd removes it quickly, and he's able to function briefly, but over time he starts to fade in and out of consciousness at the crucial moments when he must focus his attention on hacking their security system. Syd tries shaking him and yelling at him, but he's just not there ... so she plants the fullest kiss on his lips, and he springs to life as if stabbed in the heart with an adrenaline shot, feverishly typing and babbling to himself from the experience.

Meanwhile, the foundation for the Arianna Kane story is set up as she starts investigating Jack's past discretions hoping to find that he killed Emily. He has nothing to do with that, but the investigation will likely expose him for a double agent, and that's not particularly good. The interview scenes are nicely done, and there's a good foreboding sense about her presence. There are also some nice tender moments between Jack and Irina, but who cares about that stuff ... back to Marshall. After the caper is finished, he and Syd exchange a nice moment before departing for home. "Hey, you know the best part? I've never been prouder to be one of the good guys." Syd can only smile and hug him, knowing what's coming ... or should be coming. A few minutes later, he is extracted as planned, but not by the CIA. As we pan in on him strapped to a familiar torture chair, we see who has him ... our friendly freakish torturing Asian guy known simply as "Suit and Glasses."

Now, that's not what we wanted to happen. Marshall finally gets his moment in the sun, and he's rewarded with capture and torture from the sick Asian dude? That's just not right. He stands up to the torture remarkably well until they threaten to hunt down and brutally slaughter his mother, so he agrees to talk. He has a photographic memory and can recreate the Echelon code that they stole earlier. He agrees to duplicate the code for them as long as they don't hurt his mother.

While this is going on, Sydney is unable to prevent Sloane from getting the last piece of the Echelon software, and within 12 hours, he'll have a link to the CIA's main information network. Irina says she can stop him, and making everyone sick to their stomach, they reluctantly agree to let her try. It's a race of the clock on who will get in first, and wouldn't you know it ... it's Marshall. He's done writing the program and calls his captor over to compile and execute it. A few keystrokes later, and the program is up and running ... and ... it's Pong. *bleep* *bleep* Marshall stands up defying his captors and maniacally laughs as he tells them to go straight to Hell. As they prepare to kill him, Syd bursts in and kicks everyone's ass (including knocking our friend out of his wheel chair), but they're on the 47th floor (yeah, yeah, the 47th ... Rambaldi would be proud) and the exits are all cut off. Thankfully, Marshall has his parachute-lined jacket from before and actually does save the day as he beltloops Sydney to his harness and dives out the window Bond-style. It's his shining moment ... unfortunately, it no longer makes sense to extract him, and he returns to work, an unwitting pawn for the Alliance.


[size=large]#25 - Everwood - 'Is There a Doctor in the House?'[/size]   (11.18.02)
Written by: Michael Green, Directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill
"Since when is there dignity in parenthood?" - Nina Feeny

The only people dumb enough to throw the crankiest woman in town a birthday party are the Browns' visiting in-laws. Edna can't exactly refuse when invited by the loveable Delia, so the party is on, and despite how badly they expect it to go, no one's going to miss the event. "Like it or not, that woman is kin, and we are not going to miss out on her abject misery." The ensuing party presents boundless comic relief, but it also serves to get all the major characters together at the same time. As the snow falls and prevents anyone from leaving early, unspoken undercurrents rise to the surface and have to be dealt with, and characters are forced into positions of showing what they're made of and just how much they truly care about each other.

Edna and Bright don't treat each other well, but when his appendix bursts, she can't help showing how devastated she'd be if something bad happened to him. Seeing Andy's calming bedside manner during the impromptu surgery is a wakeup call for his father-in-law who realizes that this town has had a positive effect on him, that things aren't as they used to be. Ephram and Amy have said some pretty mean things to each other recently, but the thought of him leaving for good makes her realize how she has taken him for granted. And thank God for Nina. Andy's so caught up trying to avoid doing what's wrong for Ephram and do the "right" thing as a parent, he needs someone like her to tell him he's being an idiot. There is no book of answers for how to be a parent. Andy's new at this, so he doesn't understand, but all parents are terrified of making mistakes, but they screw up and learn and move on. They try to do their best, but none of us is "qualified" for the job. If he wants Ephram to stay, he needs to tell him ... and he does. We get a chance to see a side of many of the characters that we hadn't really seen up until this point. We see just how loving a parent the typically Scrooging Dr. Abbott is, how strong Bright really is and how kind he can be with his interaction with Delia. We see how much Andy really needs Ephram to keep him going from day to day and how his over-bearing in-laws are grieving the death of their daughter. The way all these scenes delicately weave through one another is a real triumph of writing and directing. Nothing particularly earth-shattering happens in this day in the life of the Everwood community, but this episode so beautifully taps into the core of these characters and reminds us that we're watching a pretty special television show.


[size=large]#24 - Angel - 'Home'[/size]   (05.07.03)
Written by: Tim Minear, Directed by: Tim Minear
"We ended a nefarious global domination scheme, not world peace ... right?" - Winifred Burkle

What's the absolute last thing you expect to happen on Angel? Well, I mean, aside from Angel and Darla (both back from the grave after already being undead) having a kid who is whisked off to a Hell dimension returning a few months later as a full adult who impregnates Cordy with a being of light that enslaves the human race? Ya know, aside from that, what's the last thing? How about Wolfram & Hart offering their entire LA operation to Angel and friends (in the form of a recently decapitated Lilah, no less)?

Watching this episode, I couldn't help but think of another 4th season finale: 'Restless' from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. After defeating Adam, the Scoobies pass out from exhaustion while preparing for some late-night movie watching and are subsequently split up into foreboding dream sequences that set the tone for a fairly radical shift in the show. In many ways, this finale plays out the same, as the crew is split up one by one and wooed by everyone's favorite evil-doers. After so much drama over the course of this season, part of this episode's charm is a strong return of some very funny light-hearted banter as the crew debates whether to even consider this unexpected -- and worse, unexplained -- offer from their nemesis. However, there's a dark undercurrent as Lilah expresses the firm's gratitude to Angel and Co. for ending world peace and returning suffering and anguish to countless millions of people. They never particularly saw it that way, and what they did had to be done, but it's still very unsettling for them ... none more so than Connor who has finally lost it.

The deal they present is enticing -- and wonderfully spooky as we don't know what they've told Gunn -- and Angel wants no part of any of it until he realizes he can finally give Connor the one thing he's never known, a family. This isn't the first time Angel has made a huge sacrifice to alter the course of history for a loved one, but I'll forgive his doing it a second time if it means the end of this storyline. "I really do love you, Connor." "So what are you gonna do about it?" "Prove it." He takes the deal and in doing so gives Connor new life with a real family erasing him from existence in the way we all knew him. Of course, Angel always remembers. The Powers made him remember his perfect day with Buffy, and he'll be remembering every moment with Connor.

While the main storyline was solid, the best part of this episode is its flow. So much of the season was disjointed and awkward, but everything comes together nicely for this finale. It balances the humor and the drama along with a great final fight between Angel and Connor; but more importantly, it flips the series on its ear. It's clear that things are really going to change next season as the show moves in a new direction, and that likely spells very good things for this series that is now standing strong on its own. As Lilah says at the end, "Team Angel ... all grow'd up."


[size=large]#23 - The West Wing - 'Life on Mars'[/size]   (04.30.03)
Written by: Aaron Sorkin, Story by: Paul Redford & Dee Dee Myers, Directed by: John David Coles
"Toby, either get Andie to marry you ... or kill yourself." - Will Bailey

Tuesday 5:58 a.m. - The scene pans across the front of the White House as camera crews shield themselves from a terrible downpour. A young woman exits a taxi holding a sealed envelope and is greeted by Charlie Young who walks her steadfastly through the corridors past the knowing eyes of familiar White House staffers and into the President's office. She can barely speak she's so nervous. "Why'd you take a cab?" he asks. "My car wouldn't start." The words barely scratch from her throat. She repeats herself but without much more clarity. "You know what's in here?" he asks, already knowing the answer. "It's OK." Removing a single sheet from the envelope, President Bartlet places his glasses atop the bridge of his nose and unfolds the letter. It reads simply, Dear Mr. President: I hereby resign the Office of Vice President of the United States effective 6AM today. Roll titles.

I should have known better. When I read that Matthew Perry would be doing some guest spots on The West Wing, I got a headache from my eyes rolling into the back of my head. NBC uses guest stars as a crutch in lieu of actually telling a compelling story so frequently that the mere thought of such a recognizable sit-com actor joining one of the most compelling dramas on television during "sweeps" screams gimmick. As I said, though ... I should have known better. The West Wing is just too good a show, and apparently Matthew Perry is too good an actor.

I've often said that I think Sorkin does his best work in flashback, and while this isn't a typical flashback episode, it is fairly close. We learn the conclusion to the story in the first 2 minutes, and then we are taken back 24 hours earlier to see how seemingly innocent events built to this climax. What starts off as a silly question from the Post about whether the White House is concealing proof of life on Mars spirals as it's dropped in the lap of the new White House counsel (Perry) who begins putting the pieces together to a much larger story. Apparently, the Defense Department classified the report, and that in and of itself is of little consequence, but how did the Post know about it? Meanwhile, another Post reporter seems to have a bit too much information about the details of a legal settlement. Lyman puts together that there's a leak, but it's not until Quincy (Perry) overhears a conversation between Toby and Charlie about a gossip column's report of a 7-figure book deal for Helen Baldwin that he realizes the source.

Quincy's a Republican, and he'd probably love to strike a blow to the Democratic Party, but he works for the White House now, and this is the last thing he wanted to uncover on his first day. What makes this episode work so well is how much nonverbal communication there is between these intelligent characters as they each put the pieces together in their heads. In fact, almost all the actual dialogue is off-topic and particularly humorous banter, but one by one these light-hearted conversations end as the weight of what is about to happen comes to their attention. I chose this episode for a couple of reasons, but in large part due to very powerful performances from Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, each of whom is more recognized in comedic settings. This is also the episode that breathes life back into an average season, beginning a chain of events allowing the series to finish its season as strongly as it ever has.


[size=large]#22 - Without a Trace - 'Hang on to Me'[/size]   (01.30.03)
Written by: Ed Redlich, Story by: Jan Nash & Greg Walker, Directed by: Paul Holahan
"It's nice to meet you, Garrett" - Chet Collins

It's no secret that the greenlighting of this series is almost a direct result to the overwhelming success of C.S.I., but unlike its predecessor, Without a Trace focuses more on human elements than flashy and unrealistic forensic gimmicks (note: I don't intend to put down the series as much as I wanted to type those three words in succession). This is obviously inherent to a show about missing persons, but it's not just the cases that receive the human treatment -- the detectives are strong, defined characters -- and I think that's a large part of what makes it a superior program and a great addition to the Thursday night schedule. With that in mind, there's no greater actor at capturing that human element than Charles S. Dutton. Very early in the season we meet his character, a distraught father named Chet who is lost to the world after 6 years of searching for his missing son Sean. It's a brief side story, and Jack runs down a dead-end lead for him, but right away we know this is something more; this story will be back.

And so it does return, with the addition of the infinitely talented Rosalind Chao as his ex-wife. However, the search isn't for his missing son, but for him, both physically and spiritually. Chet's life has spiraled further out of control in recent weeks, and a series of run-ins with his boss, his wife, and a private investigator lead to his disappearance. Without anything to go on, they decide to reopen Sean's case in hopes of following whatever trail Chet may be tracking, the first step to look into a vaguely similar recent kidnapping attempt. During the personal interview, they finally see the connection: Black father, Asian mother ... illegal mixed-race adoptions. The kid Chet has tracked down isn't his, and he's mixed up in a murder charge now, but the story is unfolding, and it's a wild one.

This is a powerfully intense hour of television that makes the viewer question at what point would he be willing to give up and try to move on with his life ... or what would it take to send him over the edge in his pursuit? It's about so much more than simply finding this lost boy, but putting at ease the tortured souls that have lived in his absence. The story is great on its own, but the performances of LaPaglia, Jean-Baptiste (who doesn't get enough credit for her work), Dutton, and Chao are simply incredible. Perhaps with time Without a Trace will see some much deserved recognition for some serious quality television.


[size=large]#21 - The West Wing - 'The Long Goodbye'[/size]   (01.15.03)
Written by: Jon Robin Baitz, Directed by: Alex Graves
"You're losing time, Mr. Cregg." - Marco Arlens

Periodically on The West Wing we step away from the White House and into the life of one of the main characters. Working for the President doesn't leave much time for any sort of life, particularly when you're the White House Press Secretary, but sometimes life doesn't get the message. It's C.J.'s high school reunion, and she has been asked to give a speech on the "Promise of a Generation," a topic she cannot keep from rolling her eyes at, but she finds excuse not to return home as Josh voices his fear of the vultures in the press corp. Toby, however, is aware of issues with C.J.'s father and offers to fill in, making it possible for her to attend (or rather impossible to avoid).

What transpires when she returns home is simply heart-breaking in a way that precious few shows have the guts, let alone the ability, to present. C.J.'s father, a math professor and author who has built a life from his intelligence, has been suffering the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. C.J. has been dealing with it periodically over the phone from work, but she has been under the impression that her father's new wife has been taking care of him (which is no longer the case), and when she arrives at his home she comes face to face with the disease. The doctor explains the condition as follows: "it's not that you forget where you put your key; it's that you forget what it's for." We witness this in subtle ways as Talmidge's concentration wanders while making a custard or setting down a lit cigarette and then lighting another one a few moments later. There are no great breakthroughs, no emotional break-downs, no grand speeches (in fact, C.J.'s "speech" is ended just as it's getting started as she's pulled away to the White House on an urgent matter), save a swelling tear in C.J.'s eye as her father doesn't recognize a picture of her as a little girl. This is just one day in the life of these characters, and nothing is going to change today. It's going to be this way for likely many years, and it's going to get progressively worse. This is life, as real as it gets, and Janney's subtle performance validates all the accolades she has received for this character. 'The Long Goodbye' is one of those episodes that's so well done and so realistic that you really never want to see it again.

[size=large]#20 - Everwood - 'The Doctor is In'[/size]   (10.21.02)
Written by: Vanessa Taylor, Directed by: Stephen Gyllenhaal
"Welcome to the human race, Dr. Brown." - Dr. Gretchen Trott

Later in the season, Dr. Brown's father-in-law will tell him that he's only "half a person." For most of his life, that has been true. In fact, it's probably one of the main reasons that enabled him to become such a brilliant surgeon. Over 200 times a year, Andy has held someone's life in his hands, and the arrogant confidence in his abilities combined with an emotional detachment from the human side of his patients is the very reason those patients are alive today. His pilgrimage to Everwood has changed all of that. He's no longer the white knight that rides in at the last minute, saves the day, and rides off into the sunset as they tell tales of his success in medical journals around the world. He's a part of the community, a family practitioner, involved in the lives of those to whom he's providing medical services. So the thought of performing brain surgery on Colin Hart is terrifying. For the first time, he's speculating about outcomes, fearing the countless "what if" scenarios.

This is more than enough to build an episode around, and yet surprisingly, it's just a small piece to a delicately woven story. Another family is facing their own fear with Magilla, Delia's only friend at her new school. One day, while playing after school, Magilla's mother walks in on the two of them playing "dress up." That's nothing strange for young kids, but she freaks and sends Delia home. The next day Magilla isn't in school, and they find that the family is moving away. As the story unfolds, the viewer is left wondering what the deal is. What at first glance appears to be a typical abusive/homophobic father story is apparently much more. Magilla was born with ambiguous genitalia, a pseudo-hermaphrodite, and in the absence of better advice, his parents have chosen to raise him completely as a boy and hope it goes away. Dr. Brown knows that it won't simply go away, but their denial is strong, and at the end of the day, they're his parents. What's great about this small thread in the story is that there's no judgment passed down on these characters, only empathy. They're simply trying to raise their child the best they can under difficult circumstances. Who knows what's "best" for them to do. For the first time, we see that this show isn't afraid of difficult concepts. Later in the season, they'll do a powerful episode on abortion too, not in a preachy manner, but in a fact-of-life way. Stuff like this happens in the real world, and most shows would either avoid the subject matter entirely or try to do a "very special episode." With Everwood, it's just another of the many things that goes on in life. This storyline lasts no more than 10 minutes and is more about the general struggle every parent faces to do what's best for their children than anything else.

And yet there's still more going on. Denial is a constant thread for this episode as Andy's in denial of his fear over the surgery, and Magilla's parents are in denial over their child's sexuality. In a discussion with Andy, Dr. Trott mentions that denial of our own neuroses can lead to a total breakdown. She's speaking in general terms, but she's also trying to warn him that he needs to find someone with whom he can share his problems instead of keeping them bottled up. What we don't realize at the time, however, is that another form of denial is going to trigger that described breakdown for another character, Amy. She has been so strong after Colin's accident and has carried the burden of hope for so many different people, and it's finally starting to sink in that he may never be coming back. She has pushed those emotions so far into the back of her psyche that when they finally overflow to the surface, it triggers a total shutdown. While neither of them will likely be considered for any awards (yet), both Emily Van Camp and Tom Amendes do absolutely brilliant work in these scenes. Amy's breakdown is so subtle and realistic as her body just completely shuts down and she stares off into the distance. As a result, we get to see the real man behind her jaded and obnoxious father as he makes an impassioned plea to Dr. Brown to help Colin. It is a powerful scene as Dr. Abbott is clearly juggling his empathy for Colin's parents, his love for his daughter, and his jealously over Andy's gifts. "You owe it to this kid to perform whatever miracle you’ve got up your sleeve. You owe it to Colin, and to his parents, and to my ... brokenhearted daughter, and to the universe or whoever decided that you would be Leonardo, and I would be ... less remarkable. Hell, you owe it to me."


[size=large]#19 - Alias - 'Phase One'[/size]   (01.26.03)
Written by: J.J. Abrams, Directed by: Jack Bender
"What was wrong with the black one?" - Sydney Bristow

As Kendall says at the beginning, "for those of you new to the fun and games ..." What a daunting task. Despite how much ass it kicks, viewers just weren't tuning into Alias, so ABC gave it the biggest timeslot of the year: after the Super Bowl. Problem: Alias is one of the most intricate stories on television, and there's absolutely no way for new viewers to jump into the show at this point and make sense of anything. So how do you keep the show on the air, while attracting the post Super Bowl audience (brilliant use of the lingerie flashback for this purpose), and still maintain the integrity of the series? Well, you make 'Phase One.'

Let's be honest. For as great as the first season and a half were, there's only so much you can do with the double-agent storyline. Each week they'd come dangerously close to getting captured or found out, and each week they'd narrowly escape, and Sydney would have to deal with lying to all her friends and coworkers. It was fun, and the cliffhangers were great, but sooner or later, things had to change. I think it would have been nice to follow this storyline a little bit longer, but the show would have to evolve at some point to stay fresh. Whether it's a lingering romance in a sit-com or a government conspiracy with aliens, shows are notorious for tossing something way out into the distance and then dancing around it for years until people just get tired of it. It takes a lot of guts to do what Abrams did with this episode, as everything the characters had been fighting for actually came to fruition, and in the middle of a season too. The whole concept of the show had to be reinvented, new stories had to be told, and they had to do all of it without alienating the current fanbase.

And so the planets align, and the CIA gets the key piece of data they need to take down SD-6 and the Alliance as a whole. Not only that, but Vaughn and Sydney no longer have to hide their love for each other. Everything we had been building to was wrapped up in a nice convenient bow. Convenient ... a little too convenient, don't you think? Well, of course. They may be shaking things up, but it's still Alias. As Jack says at the beginning of the episode, "I've been doing this a long time ... there is rarely an end to the story." And true to the form of the show we've all come to love, things aren't what they seem at all. The CIA didn't take down the Alliance ... Sloane did. He and Sark manipulated the whole thing as part of a master plan that had been hinted about in the previous weeks; and just as we're smiling over the coolness of that revelation and what it could mean for the future, we are presented with the jaw-dropping final shot. It's not often that I am so completely shocked by the development of a television episode. Shows like 24 try so hard to be "shocking" that everything that happens is more or less expected in one form or another. With Alias, though, you always have to be on your toes, because just about anything could happen at any time, and even the keenest of viewers often doesn't see it coming. The final scene, and in fact the episode as a whole, was a statement to the fans and new viewers that this series isn't going down without a fight, a message that this show kicks ass, and you need to get on board for the ride. In retrospect, seeing where they're taking the show now, this new direction has just as much potential as the original, and I cannot wait to see it play out.


[size=large]#18 - Angel - 'Awakening'[/size]   (01.29.03)
Written by: David Fury and Steven S. DeKnight, Directed by: James A. Contner
"Buffy?" - Angel

"Illusion becomes reality ... it is done." Angel is such a unique show on television today. Built on the Buffy mythology and much of its contemporary wit, it is a very dark show that centers around the search for personal redemption. For each, the level is different, but most of the main characters have done things in their past that are hard to imagine, let alone forgive, but at the end of the day, they fight on the same side, trying to make the world just a little more bearable, trying to forgive themselves for their pasts. None more than Angel himself who has had a couple of chances at "freedom" from his vampire restrictions but chooses this life as something he has to do for himself. He has spent the last years trying to atone for the unspeakable horrors he committed as the soulless Angelus, and now we find that just maybe, Angelus is the one key to understanding the latest Big Bad on the block, known only as The Beast.

We all know the story, the curse: one true moment of happiness, and Angel loses his soul ... and Angelus returns. When Angel last lost his soul it was after getting busy with the Buffster, but even after all that has happened, she is still his one true love, and the question in viewers' minds has often been what would happen when he knocked the boots with another? This question was somewhat answered in a particularly dark episode where he hooked up with Darla for this express intention, but with the Cordy tension lingering, the question still somewhat remains. The goal, however, is to bring Angelus for a short period of time, not for good, and so a way must be found to return his soul once they've acquired the information they need ... enter Wesley with a Shaman (Wo-Pang) who is supposedly up to the task.

They build a fortified cage for Angelus, sedate him, and the Shaman begins his work. But it's a trap. Wo-Pang tries to kill Angel, Angel breaks free of his chains, the Shaman kills himself, and shockingly, tattooed across his body are all the clues necessary to track down a kickass sword that can defeat the Beast. While a bit far-fetched, all of this is plausible enough, and so they track down the sword, and along the way Angel gives a great speech about how they're all Champions, Gunn and Wesley make up, Cordy professes her love for him, Connor finally realizes that his father isn't the man he was raised to believe him to be, and together they defeat The Beast and bring sunlight back to Los Angeles. All in a day's work ... a perfect day ... and as Angel caps off the evening with some sack-tumbling with Cordy, the illusion instantly becomes reality, and we are thrust back into the cage as Angelus awakes from the Shaman's illusion. There are many ways that this episode could have fallen apart before it even began, or the payoff could have been lost, but through some incredibly skillful presentation, it works to perfection. As the day progresses, the events that occur become just a little bit more implausible, but it's never silly, and in the back of his mind the viewer can rationalize, "this could happen" (up to the final Cordy scene) such that at the point of reality, the viewer doesn't feel as if he's been cheated out of an episode but is right on the same page with the story. The episode fades out with the loud laughter of a restrained Angelus, and the viewer can't help but shiver with anticipation for what is surely to come.


[size=large]#17 - The Sopranos - 'Whoever Did This'[/size]   (11.10.02)
Written by: Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, Directed by: Tim Van Patten
"Nobody's killin' anybody." - Tony Soprano

Wow. For some reason, fans and critics turned on this season of The Sopranos. I'm not sure what they expected from this character-driven family drama, but my guess is they wanted more whackings or something. I guess that's the natural consequence of becoming so unbelievably popular in such a short period of time: passersby tune in for the hype but aren't overly interested in hanging around for the depth. I don't intend to say there's something wrong with those who didn't enjoy this season, but I do think there's a large group of fly-by-night viewers who unjustly railed on this season. That being said, I defy even the largest naysayer to criticize this powerful episode.

Throughout the season, viewers had to be wondering who was going to get whacked at the end. Christopher's screwing up his life completely, Paulie's losing his composure, Johnny Sack wants to move in on Carmine, and Ralphie's always off his rocker. Christopher's blood, though, and Tony's made that clear how important that is to him; and Ralphie's is the highest earning and most consistent Captain in the group. At this point, with 5 episodes left in the season, everything seems up for grabs.

And then tragedy strikes the unlikeliest of fathers as Ralphie's kid faces brain damage after a freaky archery accident with another friend. This is a devastating blow, and Ralphie vows to pay whatever it takes to do right by him. He also starts making some changes in his life to try and be a better person. To Tony's surprise and admiration, he even drops off a scheduled envelope at the office; even in his time of tragedy, Ralphie's still their top earner. And then, just as suddenly, grief comes knocking on Tony's door as Pie-O-My is badly burned in a fire and has to be put to sleep. The fire marshal rules it an electrical accident, but Tony has his suspicions, so he pays Ralphie a visit.

The death of Pie-O-My, while tragic from an emotional sense, is in fact good for business, as the insurance policies will work to both Tony and Ralphie's favor, but the ensuing argument over this subject releases a rage within Tony that we haven't seen in quite a while. For all his therapy sessions and growth with Dr. Melfi and love for his family, Tony still caries an anger inside him that no one wants to see, and what unfolds is a brutal and almost sickening struggle in Ralphie's kitchen. No choreographed fighting, no roundhouse punches, just uncoordinated animalistic rage as Tony strangles the life right out of him. And like that, Ralphie lay dead on his kitchen floor. That scene, in and of itself, is enough to recognize this episode, but they take it a step further as Tony calls on his trusted Christopher to help make Ralphie disappear. They spend the better part of a day hacking his body to pieces and discussing the ramifications of this latest development, and it turns out to be an opportunity for Tony to have some heart-to-heart time with his Nephew and impart some fatherly wisdom to him. As a viewer, it's almost painful to find warmth in their conversations as they're dismembering their murdered comrade. This was the episode everyone was waiting for at a time when I imagine they all least expected it.


[size=large]#16 - The Shield - 'Partners'[/size]   (01.21.03)
Written by: Scott Rosenbaum, Directed by: Guy Ferland
"Looks like I taught you my last lesson ... don't ever end up like me." - Joe Clark

I'm a sucker for a good montage, and The Shield uses them masterfully. With the right song selection, you can convey a wealth of information and emotion with hardly any dialogue. Oftentimes it's used to represent a calm before a storm, and that's the impression we get at the start of this episode. Vic has crossed the line and completely mangled Armadillo's face, and he can barely look at his Strike Team or himself as he hurries home to try to get the stains from his clothes; Claudette's starting to put some of the pieces together and is rifling through photos of all the death left in the path of this street war, and Aceveda is beating the streets asking for votes while he tries to ignore underage male prostitutes working the other side of the street. Things are coming to a head, and there's about to be a showdown. But we can't deal with that now ... because someone has just dropped a severed arm on Dutch's desk.

Multiple character-defining stories play out in this episode under the theme of partners. Vic and Shane are angry at one another, in part because Vic's always on Shane's case, and in part because Shane often deserves it. Julian didn't back up Danny's statement on her shooting inquiry, and ironically Shane's the one who corners him and explains what it means to be a partner. And Vic is consulting his former partner, played perfectly by Carl Weathers, about maybe getting out of the game entirely. Meanwhile, Dutch is trying to figure out the sadomasochism angle to the dismemberment case, and his overconfidence is finally about to catch up to him. It's a growth experience for all these characters, as Vic sees what his life could become if he's not careful, Shane realizes how important he is to Vic and how important Vic is to him, and Dutch gets a shot of reality that knocks him off his game for weeks to come. This is a huge episode for Shane who's really starting to show signs that he's growing up to be just like Vic.


[size=large]#15 - Boomtown - 'Pilot'[/size]   (09.29.02)
Written by: Graham Yost, Directed by: Jon Avnet
"You've been having so much fun being a wave, you forgot you're really just part of the ocean." - Fearless

"Not quite the Ganges, is it? Not really a river anymore. Used to flood like a son of a bitch back when I was a boy; they paved it all over in the 50's. London's got the Thames. Paris got the Seine. Vienna's got the Blue Danube. LA's got a ... concrete drainage ditch. It's all we got ... but it'll have to do." A distinguished elderly gentleman speaks these words -- as if directly addressing the audience -- in the early morning light over the LA River. Questions of who this gentleman is and if he's the narrator or a major character or what melt away as we're taken in by the beautiful lighting of the scene and the reflective rhythm of his voice. He turns his attention back to the river as Philip Giffin's emotional theme runs across the series' entrancing title sequence.

If you ever meet someone who tells you that Band of Brothers wasn't one of the best things in all of television last year, you should probably shake him furiously until sense returns or his head explodes. If nothing else, make a mental note to avoid further interaction and risk of contamination. Graham Yost's talent is no secret, after the staggeringly high quality of both From the Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers, so television viewers were understandably interested to see what he could do with a television series. Along with a stellar cast, including Wahlberg and McDonough from the aforementioned WWII miniseries, and a fresh look at the somewhat tired cop drama, Boomtown had to be the most highly anticipated network series of the year. Combine all of that with an incredible amount of network hype, and that's a lot of pressure.

Network television, however, is quite a bit different from HBO. Rarely do you have time to slowly develop all your characters and build to greatness. They want it NOW, or you're gone. With that in mind, there's a lot of ground to cover in a series premiere, especially when dealing with an unconventional method of storytelling that depends so heavily on the strength of the characterization. All of this is handled exceptionally well as we get a quite a bit of insight into all of these characters through the tale of one compelling crime. The foundation is laid down beautifully in under an hour, and the audience gets the feeling that this show might really be something special. After watching this premiere, you feel as though you've seen something unique in tone and presentation to anything else currently on television, an undefinable quality to the lighting and music and direction that's simply entrancing. Let's hope critical acclaim and some trophies will help keep this series on the air.


[size=large]#14 - The Sopranos - 'Whitecaps'[/size]   (12.08.02)
Written by: Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess & David Chase, Directed by: John Patterson
"Anthony Soprano, you are full of surprises." - Carmela Soprano

I think Edie Falco must have bought a new house before the filming of this episode and realized she had room for more trophies, because her performance in this season finale makes it difficult not to just retire the Best Actress award in her name. Much like other great episodes of The Sopranos, we are taken in one direction at the beginning and then yanked in the complete opposite before finishing. Tony has his eye on beachfront property, he and Johnny Sack have agreed to take out Carmine, and the Soprano family couldn't be happier. True to form, though, this cannot last as Irina -- who feels like she has nothing to live for anyway -- calls Carmela at home and details not only her own affair with her husband but Svetlana's as well.

Carmela has always known in her heart that this was the reality of her life, but to have it come so close to home sends her over the edge, and she unloads on Tony. She reaches near hysteria as her anger at Tony for his actions competes with her anger at herself for putting up with it for so long. The scenes they share with each other as they lay out years of baggage (on both sides) are some of the best in the series' entire run, and ultimately, the familyman within Tony wins out as he realizes that it's better for his children if he leaves the house peacefully. For all his ****, he's still a good father, and he still wants the best for A.J. and Meadow. He doesn't want the best, however, for the man who refuses to give him back his house deposit, and the season ends to the sounds of Dean Martin at the Sands.


[size=large]#13 - Six Feet Under - 'I'm Sorry, I'm Lost'[/size]   (06.01.03)
Written by: Jill Soloway, Directed by: Alan Ball
"Don't ask me. This is your thing." - Nathaniel Fisher

A father helps his daughter understand the value of letting a bird they've nursed back to health fly free. That bird's droppings shortly make their way to the hat of an unsuspecting actor as he walks down the street. The actor washes his hat in a convenient store bathroom and mistakenly flushes the broken toilet. While cleaning the bathroom, the owner calls his wife to let her know he'll be home late, but the signal is bad on her cell phone. So she steps outside to get better reception and is promptly squashed to death by a chunk of blue ice that has fallen from an airplane.

Throughout this season, Six Feet Under has thematically focused on the consequences of the choices we make and how we face the unexpected events that come our way (and often how our parents faced similar circumstances). Everything is connected, whether we want it to be or not, and small choices lead to a lifetime of changes, often outside of our own control. Ruth unexpectedly got pregnant when she was young, and her decision to keep the baby and marry the father is what leads to the entire Fisher family's existence and everything stemming from it. Claire also get pregnant at a young age, but she decides to have an abortion. That one choice creates a lifetime, possibly multiple lifetimes, of change. And yet with Nate descending further into darkness, she ends up taking care of Maya more each day and ironically finds peace through it as her search for meaning in her own life isn't going particularly well. (The use of the soap opera in the background as they did in the premiere was wonderful.) Nate, of course, is haunted by his choice to stay after his father's death and how f'd up his life has become since then. He has become just like his father in so many ways, getting married because he had a kid and then trying to do the "right thing" but ultimately leading to the same unfulfilling lifestyle his father faced for so many years.

When this season finale aired, someone posted an article berating the episode for not allowing the characters to grow. I thought this was crazy talk when I first read it, but upon watching this season in its entirety a second time, I know it's crazy talk. In fact, the number one thing we get from this finale is growth of all of the characters. Ruth has learned how fleeting and precious life is, and she can no longer cling to guilt over having an affair when Nathaniel was alive. She has to move on with her life, and while marrying George may seem too quick, it's going to make her happy, and she doesn't have that many more days left on this planet to be happy. Claire has come to realize that there's no golden palace around the corner. She's been thinking that art school would be the savior to provide meaning for her difficult life, but it's just as f'd up as everything else in this world. As her teacher has told her, she sits in judgment of the world but is afraid to be a part of it. Maya's presence in her life, though, has presented her the opportunity to re-experience the world through her eyes, and it has brought her some much needed peace. She's really starting to connect with her mother and the world as a whole, and the emotion of all of it -- both joy and pain -- explodes from her at her mother's wedding. David and Keith have made tremendous progress both as individuals and as a couple, and they finally get to have an open heart-to-heart talk with each other and lay it all out on the table. The scene with them talking in the church and then again after Ruth's wedding are truly touching. They have learned to talk with, not at, each other. Brenda has found that there are things in this world important enough to her that it hurts when they're gone. Rico is finding that the fairytale marriage he presents to David isn't really the case, and he's about to go down the path he's seen the Fishers travel, and it scares him. And then there's Nate ... This finale was the perfect end to a brilliant season.


[size=large]#12 - The Wire - 'Cleaning Up'[/size]   (09.01.02)
Written by: George P. Pelecanos, Story by: David Simon & Edward Burns (III), Directed by: Clement Virgo
"That's the game, yo. That's the ****ing game." - Bodie

Things really haven't gone as planned for the wire. Well, they've gone as someone planned, just not those who are trying to make the best bust. The wire's up and running, and it's producing solid results. With more time, they can take down all sorts of destructive crime ... but good police has been shot, and the Commissioner wants a very public drug bust, and he wants it now. The team raids the re-up stash for the cameras, and the politicians all look like heroes, but in the overall scheme, it's nothing. They won't be able to take down the big guns, and those they do get won't be hit with enough time. On top of that, Barksdale and his crew know what's up, so they start changing the operation, starting with no more pagers and pay phones. All the work that's been done up until this point is essentially useless. They can only act on what they have now.

Both sides began cleaning up their operations. For the law, this means picking up D'Angelo and trying to flip him. It means bringing Wallace back and flipping him as well. But Wallace isn't at the safe house anymore. He's returned to the towers. "This is me, yo ... right here." He doesn't know anything but this life. Hell, he doesn't even know about D's favorite restaurant on the other side of town. This is his life, and he can't hide out in the country anymore. Avon and Stringer are cleaning up all their loose ends, and Wallace is unfortunately one of them. Were he hard and dedicated to the game like Wee-Bey, it wouldn't be a problem, but they can't take that chance with Wallace. He's soft, and it's time for Bodie and Poot to step up and show that they're not. For as hard as Bodie acts, when the time comes to cross that line, he struggles and needs Poot to give him a little push. But they do their job and murder their childhood friend, and in so doing let Stringer off the hook. Avon's still going to do time, but Stringer's the brains behind the operation anyway, and with his college degree and fancy glasses, we know he'll be better and stronger before too long.


[size=large]#11 - Buffy, the Vampire Slayer - 'Conversations with Dead People'[/size]   (11.12.02)
Written by: Jane Espenson & Drew Goddard, Directed by: Nick Marck
"Buffy, everybody feels alone ... everybody is." - Holden Webster



Really, what more can you ask of this series? Sure, it doesn't always work, but my goodness ... when they set out to do a unique episode, they really accomplish something special. Each season, Joss and team try to give the viewers at least one episode that is truly unique. This season we were fortunate to be treated to two of these such endeavors, one for a more comedic effect and the other for dramatic. This is the latter. Immediately, we know this episode will be something special as a title card flashes on the screen, then the actual date and time the episode is airing in the United States: November 12, 2002 - 8:01pm, while in the background a band is setting up to play a set. Angie Hart begins singing hauntingly lonely vocals over images of Buffy alone in a graveyard, Spike alone in a bar, Willow alone in the library, and Dawn alone at home ... each almost lost to the world, just going through the motions of life. A hand reaches out from a grave as Buffy apathetically prepares for yet another fight ... "here we go."



When we return, 4 stories proceed to weave through one another as each character has fairly significant interaction with someone who is dead. For Buffy, it's a needed emotional release through discussion with a vampire who recognizes her from high school. For Willow, it's Cassie channeling Tara, tapping into the core of her emotional pain. For Andrew, it's Warren manipulating him into killing his friend Jonathan to open the Seal. And for Dawn ... it's Mom. (Spike's interaction isn't addressed at this time, but it makes sense later on) Each scene was apparently written by a different member of the core writing staff, and the differences in style and tone work very well. Buffy's discussions with Holden give profound insight into her character, strengthened by an excellent supporting performance from Jonathan Woodward. Willow's scenes are gut-wrenching as we're reminded how Tara's loss has ripped her apart. And Joyce's appearance before Dawn is just downright scary. It's rare to find such solid horror content in a television series, but the shots of Joyce stretched out on the couch are nightmarish images that linger even after the episode finishes. Everything works to perfection in this episode (even the use of Cassie) as it lays the foundation for this final season. It's a haunting and lonely hour of television that leaves you disturbed and emotionally empty as it draws to a close and we find out the ultimate reason for these conversations.

[size=large]#10 - Farscape - 'Unrealized Reality'[/size]   (08.23.02)
Written by: David Kemper, Directed by: Andrew Prowse
"Time ... time ... 's up? Time ... flies? Time ... Bandits. Time ... wounds all heal. Time ... Rosemary and T(hy)ime. Time. Time is ... infinite ... relative? You are quite a simple organism to possess the knowledge you do. Time is meaningless and yet it is all that exists." - 'Einstein' and John Crichton

Farscape challenges its viewers intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally at a level unlike any other show on television today, and possibly ever. "Unskilled wanderings create unrealized realities." That is the basis of this daring episode. Farscape begins as many stories do ... John Crichton, astronaut from Earth (timeframe: not too distant future), testing a new ship, is suddenly snatched up by a wormhole and sent to a distant part of the galaxy. All he wants to do is return home, but the power to control wormholes is beyond the grasp of even the most advanced aliens he encounters ... until one day, beings from another connected realm -- for reasons unknown to him -- bury the information needed to control them deep within his mind in such a way that if he can figure it out, then he is worthy of possessing the knowledge ... the most powerful knowledge in the Universe ... and now everyone wants to control him. "Are you afraid of this knowledge?" "No." "There is still time."

Wormholes, time travel, parallel universes ... these are all common and popular concepts in science fiction, and more often than not -- particularly with the current Trek regime -- they are handled in an embarrassingly pedestrian manner and crumble under any intellectual scrutiny. 'Unrealized Realities' seeks to change that. Through a series of circumstances over the years, John has acquired the ability to predict the location of a wormhole opening but has no idea how to control the travel within it and consequently the destination. While observing a particularly interesting entrance, he is snatched up by a force within the wormhole (playfully referred to by John as "Einstein") and instructed -- through experience -- as to the true nature of these anomalies. "Space and time are fused," he says. You cannot travel through space without traveling through time. The same applies to wormholes. They may alter the path between two points in space, but this also means they alter the path between two points in time. The amount of wormhole entrances/exits is infinite (but at an aleph lower than that of total points), and each portal occupies a unique space and time. Returning to the same space prior to the time in which you left is like a pebble sending a rippling effect through the ocean. By design, the only space-time signatures that can be realized are ones familiar to the traveler, and the Ancients who implanted the knowledge in his head have given him the ability to recognize those portals. They are, however, surrounded by "unrealized realities" and the rippling effect of the pebble that arrives before it left brings them into being. One of the phrases used by fans trying to bring the show back to life after the insidious atrocities committed by Hammer is, "This isn't your father's science fiction." It most certainly is not. There's no standard linearly circular time paradox to be found with this concept.

"Traversing wormholes is an art, not a science," we are told, and this episode approaches the subject in this manner as well. Instead of charts and exposition detailing the logic behind this construct, John is subjected to increasingly absurd variations of these unrealized realities until ultimately he realizes how dangerous the circumstances really are (which incidentally was the point of his meeting with Einstein). The presentation of these unrealized realities shows just how remarkably talented the cast and crew for this show really are. Previous episodes play out before our eyes, first with only subtle differences in character traits all the way to the point where each actor is portraying another character entirely or even a hybrid of multiple characters. It's completely absurd and yet is presented brilliantly. Amazingly, this episode strives even higher as there isn't a single wasted moment. Countless questionable events from seasons past are answered to perfection, and the path for the future episodes is laid forth in incredibly subtle ways (even within the unrealized realities) to a point that repeated viewings serve to reveal more each time. It's mastery of script, direction, and acting to cram so much plot content juxtaposed with challenging science fiction ideas in a manner that makes sense to the thoughtful viewer. The opening scenes with Aeryn trying to learn English and practicing ironically with the word "existence," the Wizard of Oz theme slipped in when you're not looking ... all skillfully presented.

"The space-time signature will be familiar ... powerful." John can find his way back to Moya if he just concentrates, follows his instincts, and focuses on familiar signatures. He repeats to himself "Moya ... after. Moya ... after." Viewers would expect the king of pop culture references to say, "there's no place like home," but he doesn't have to ... we know that's what he's thinking. "What do you desire with wormholes?" "To go home ..." And shockingly, that's precisely where his instincts lead him ... home. Earth. But when? This episode stands incredibly strong on its own merits, but in the final scene it does something few shows have the guts to do. Instead of dangling the carrot in front of us in the spirit of dren like Voyager, we are abruptly dropped off the one place we didn't expect to be until ratings sagged or the show was preparing to end. With at least another season and a half to go and the highest praise of the network that would shortly stab them and television viewers everywhere in the back, they did the unthinkable and without any intention of a Trek-like "reset," setting up an incredible 13 episode run to an even bigger season finale (which at present is the series finale). The crime that took place when this series was yanked from television cannot be quantified and cannot be forgiven. People who know me know that I watch anything and everything, no matter what its content or where it airs, but never before in the decades I've been a television fanatic have I ever been so disgusted as to completely blacklist an entire network refusing to ever watch another thing they broadcast. Episodes like this are the reason why.


[size=large]#9 - Everwood - 'Home'[/size]   (05.19.03)
Written by: Michael Green & Rina Mimoun, Story by: Greg Berlanti & Vanessa Taylor, Directed by: Sandy Smolan
"This is the story of Colin Hart and Andy Brown. It's the story of a town that lost its center and strove to regain it. This is the story of Everwood." - Irv Harper

Who knew? Honestly ... who knew? I'm not kidding ... if you knew, go ahead and say so ... take full credit for it, because I had no idea. I had no idea that I would be so completely swept away by what appeared on the surface to be just another family drama. Part Northern Exposure, part Once & Again, part Six Feet Under, Everwood isn't for everyone, but for those of us looking for the perfect family drama, it's a heartwarmingly beautiful show that reminds us how precious and painful and wonderful life truly is. And maybe that's the best way to describe this series: alive. The town of Everwood is so alive we feel that we could hop on a plane to Denver and drive there ourselves. It's life ... everything that it is and everything that it can be. From its spectacular visuals to its richly drawn characters, this is a beautiful show, and it's the type of programming that could only find a home on the WB. On that note, I cannot say enough about how the WB has elevated the level of quality on network television in its short life. The way they've shown such confidence in this show by offering it an early pick-up before announcing its Fall schedule and renewing it so quickly is another sign that they not only recognize by also appreciate and stand by quality.

In this episode, everything comes full circle ... but the show has evolved from the story of a man who's lost his way to the story of a town. The opening narration to the premiere episode began, "I wasn't there the day Dr. Andrew Brown's life changed forever ..." In this season finale, we begin differently: "I wasn't there the day Colin Hart's life changed forever." Everwood has helped make this broken man whole again, and it's now time for him to return the favor. One wonders if the town can even bear it if he doesn't succeed. For many of the characters, this episode marks an understanding or a realization of things that have weighed heavily on them. Bright gets forgiveness from Colin. Colin (the Second) realizes that he really does love Amy, not because he used to or he's supposed to, but because he just does. Dr. Brown realizes that this may very well be why he was put on this Earth, and Ephram finally finds some peace with his life, knowing that whether he can have Amy or not, Everwood is his home. Everwood makes perfect use of contemporary music (and not in the gimmicky way other WB shows have done), and the sounds of Jump Little Children's "Cathedrals" playing over the final scenes leaves your heart just hanging, wondering how you'll make it until next season's premiere.

It's difficult to select the best episode of this show's first season, but I'm choosing this one for the way it represents how these characters have grown and affected each other over this year and because it captures the heart of the series as a whole. I'm reminded of something Patman said about this series after this episode aired: "This show does so many things right when it could easily and understandably get them wrong." I look through this list, at all the incredible television compiled here, and I find that there is no show whose return I look forward to more than Everwood. Knowing how much television I watch, I think that really means something. Who knew?


[size=large]#8 - The Shield - 'Dominoes Falling'[/size]   (04.01.03)
Written by: Shawn Ryan, Directed by: Scott Brazil
"You watch your back around these people, ok?" - Danny Sofer

What a great way to finish the season. Aceveda has recommended the Strike Team be fired as the election is around the corner, and it's time to hit the Money Train. Everything this season has been about is coming to a head, but Vic is distracted by trying to track down the death of Claudette's ex-husband as it leads to a potential shooting he can prevent. It's go time, and he's not there, but he shows faith in Shane (aka Cletus Van Damme) by telling him that he trusts him to go it alone. Things get ugly as the Armenians turn on themselves and leave dead bodies at the scene.

Meanwhile, Danny takes the fall for the Armadillo incident as she is fired from the Force along with the intolerant punks who have been harassing Julian, and somehow -- to the shock of everyone -- Acevedo actually wins the election for City Council (likely due to his speech about holding himself accountable for the failure of his team, when in truth, he's being forced out by his boss). Things are going to be changing, and it starts with Claudette, who will be taking his job. She knows what Vic's been up to and doesn't approve of any of it, and now she's his boss. Danny's gone, Julian gets the **** beat out of him in a blanket party arranged in his honor, and Dutch is charged with investigating the body at the site of the heist. In another piece of brilliant song selection, Live's "Overcome" plays over these scenes, and we are left watching the Strike Team staring at the ungodly sum of money they just acquired and completely overcome by the reality of what they've just done. Nothing's the same anymore for any of them.


[size=large]#7 - The West Wing - 'Commencement'[/size]   (05.07.03)
Written by: Aaron Sorkin, Directed by: Alex Graves
"Bookbag's been taken. We're black. Go to black." - Wes Davis

Brilliant. I try not to use the word too often, but it applies here. Much is made about the talent assembled in this cast, and it is all completely deserved, many times over in fact. However, the penultimate episode of the 4th season achieves a level of greatness through skill of direction, music selection, and editing in a manner we haven't seen before during the series' run. NBC's promotional department did everything they could to make this episode look like an eye-rollingly typical sweeps stunt, but once again The West Wing finds a way to transcend its manipulative network and present a incredibly powerful episode.

Little events that have been building this season all come to a head. Zoey is leaving with Jean-Paul, and Charlie's attempts to woo her away from him haven't fully worked. Andie's only days away from labor and still refuses to remarry Toby, and he finds out the full reason why after making a wonderfully romantic gesture on her behalf. Danny finally has a story on the death of Shareef, and the disappearance of Qumari radicals as well as an unaccounted shipping container places the President in the position of revealing to his staff that he did in fact have him assassinated.

All of this is setup for a mind-blowing final sequence set against a techno-style dance track ("Angel" by Massive Attack) that provides a powerfully foreboding atmosphere to the overlapping scenes that follow. It begins with Donna and Amy discussing whether or not Josh is angry with her for an offhand remark she made earlier that day, then folds into C.J. and Danny figuring out what he's going to be able to print in regard to the assassination, and ultimately settles on Zoey and Jean Paul as she realizes he's spiked her drink with Ecstasy. As the scenes weave through one another, each leaves us hanging -- we fade out from Donna unable to answer Amy's inquiry whether she's in love with Josh and a few moments later fade from C.J. unable to answer whether the White House expects retaliation for the assassination, until we're back at the nightclub ... where Zoey's gone, Molly's dead, and we close with Leo running across the grounds to inform the President. A typical kidnapping storyline is spun into a powerful presentation and a reminder that this series is still one of the best on TV.


[size=large]#6 - Boomtown - 'The David McNorris Show'[/size]   (12.01.02)
Written by: Laurie D. Arent, Directed by: Peter Werner
"David? David's dead." - David McNorris

One of the really cool things about Boomtown is its flexibility. The talent in front of and behind the camera is so strong that it can be a standard cop drama or a time-shifting detective story or a one-man character study and succeed immensely in each pursuit. This series really does seem to have limitless potential, but I do think the schizophrenic way it changes from week to week is disconcerting to the average viewer, and next season they should probably choose one method of storytelling and stick with it. If not, though, we can only hope they continue to produce quality like this episode.

There's an interesting crime story being told here ... in fact, considering that it's the B story, it's really quite amazing how good this story of a young girl's murder is told. For as horrible as the crime is, you can almost sympathize with the horrific past of the killer and the set of circumstances that led him to commit such an atrocity. As the title implies, though, this isn't about a young girl's murder but -- in the words of his wife -- the radiant glow of the David McNorris Show. He is such a commanding presence on screen with his bleached hair and piercing blue eyes, but he's also a commanding presence within the scope of his own life, and he's running from many demons, most notably his father. He maintains a forceful control of his life and his surroundings, walking a fine line of morality. He's an alcoholic and a womanizer and is disgusted with how he's become precisely the man he never wanted to be, but he is able to walk that line, until a wealthy movie producer offers to further his career in exchange for helping his son evade capture on a murder charge. Caught up in his desire to control events, he sells his soul to this lowlife, but the horror of what he's allowed himself to become eats away at him, and he sets himself on a drunken self-destructive path that's painful to watch.

The time-shifting perspectives work perfectly in this episode as we see most of the major story play out in the first 40 minutes, and through the eyes of the detectives, it all seems very plausible. We then relive the day through McNorris' eyes and see how ingeniously he manipulated everything to make it play out in just this manner. The murder is of little consequence, though, and it turns out the kid he's protecting didn't even do it. This is an intense character study played brilliantly by Neal McDonough. Who knew the new bridge officer (aka dead man walking or red shirt) from First Contact would shortly be one of television's best actors? Must be something in the water up in Dorcester, the hometown of both McDonough and Wahlberg, because who knew the goofy looking New Kid would be this good either?


[size=large]#5 - The Wire - 'Sentencing'[/size]   (09.08.02)
Written by: David Simon & Edward Burns (III), Directed by: Tim Van Patten
"Sometimes things just gotta play hard." - Kima Greggs

I'm sitting here trying to think of a way to describe this show. Is there a word that encapsulates its essence? Entertaining? Absolutely. The characters and stories are amazing. Entrancing? Yep. The way this crime saga plays out just sinks you deeper and deeper into its greatness. Brilliant? No doubt. I could say so many things about this series, and then it hit me ... one words that describes the show in a nutshell: perfection. The Wire is a perfect show. No filler. No bad episodes. Just an incredibly engrossing story that gets better with each week. And yet, what possible reason could we ever have to suspect otherwise?

Take the man behind Homicide: Life on the Street and The Corner, put him together with his writers and producers (and even some cast) from The Corner, and put it on the station that understands quality television unlike any other, and you're as close as you're going to get to guaranteed quality. It just boggles my mind that people didn't start watching this when it aired. What were they thinking? It's cool, though. They'll see. Slowly, the critics are starting to find this show, and while it doesn't exactly lend itself to episodic recognition, and for all the hype and love we have for The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, The Wire is quite possibly the best thing on all of television.

No more is that displayed than in the finale of its first season. The case is winding to a close, they've run Barksdale's group out of his club and for the time being out of the high-risers, and they're putting together as many arrests as they can. They didn't want to be in this position at this time, but politics win out over police work, so this is where they stand, trying to build a case with what they've got. This episode gives us so many powerful scenes, most notably D'Angelo's inner struggle as he discusses his deal with the prosecution. His impassioned plea to just get out of the game speaks volumes for what this show is about, a sense of inevitability and futility on all sides, from both the cops and the dealers. As Omar says at the end, "... all in the game." So much is brought to a close with this episode, and yet so many doors are left open, and many new threads are just beginning. We see the harsh reality of this situation as the convictions don't all go through as they want them to, and Stringer is able to maintain a lot of real estate. Familiar, but until now unimportant, faces step up to get things back up and running. New locations are found, new product is brought in, new guys are learning the system ... the game goes on. It's the painful reality that this series neither glorifies nor vilifies. It's just the way it is ... the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Actually, I must amend that earlier statement. Having now seen most of Season 2, there's no "quite possibly" to it. Let me say this as plainly and clearly as possible: The Wire is the best show on television.


[size=large]#4 - Buffy, the Vampire Slayer - 'Chosen'[/size]   (05.20.03)
Written by: Joss Whedon, Directed by: Joss Whedon
"I want to see how it ends." - Spike

When this finale aired, most everyone commented that this was a "fitting" end to the series, and I agreed, but I think it succeeds more than just on that level. Watching it again, months later and distanced from the emotional build-up and anticipation felt during its original airing, I find that it holds up incredibly well and gives me a warm feeling about the end of this wonderful chapter of television. After moving from the Frog to the Mountain for its 6th and 7th seasons, Buffy had pretty much done everything already. How many times can you die saving the world from an apocalypse before it gets tired ... how can the next Big Bad be bigger and badder than the last? What more can possibly done with this show and these characters?

The sixth season tried to take the show in a darker direction -- which I think on paper was a very good idea -- but for whatever reason (my guess, Joss was stretched too thin), the writing couldn't keep pace with the difficult line of story-telling, and though the 6th season finale was strong, the audience came into this final season a bit uneasy. I know I did. And as the season progressed, we were fed stories about not just the end of the world, but the end of "Good" and how the First Evil was going to end the balance forever and blah, blah, blah. It was a solid idea, and I was entertained enough, but I just felt as though we were stumbling through this final season with no real direction. In fact, in this episode, it is eloquently noted that the First Evil may just as well be known to all as The Taunter. Much of the season felt this way; while there were some stand-out episodes and moments, the audience felt a bit like we were just being taunted with the storyline.

And then something changed. Whether it was the plan from the beginning or Joss's personal reaction to the show ending its run is unknown, but the "fun" slowly crept into the closing episodes, and by the time this finale aired, the series was back to what could be referred to as its "old self." The world was about to end (again), everyone was going to die horrible deaths, Evil would reign triumphant, and ... and ... "what are you guys gonna to do tomorrow? I was thinking about shopping, as per usual. I'm having a wicked shoe craving." They've saved the world before. They (or someone else) will have to save it again. So it is in the Buffyverse and the constant struggle between Good and Evil. Sure, there was an epic battle and some grand speechifying, but this finale wasn't just a return to form ... it was a celebration of it. From start to finish, 'Chosen' focused on all the beautiful qualities that made this series so unique and wonderful, giving characters a chance to make peace with each other and pay homage to some of the great moments that brought us to this point. The writing was clever and on target, the music was grand in scope, and the performances were energetic and alive with an intensity that hadn't been so prevalent recently. It tapped into the very soul of the entire 7-year run and accomplished the overwhelming task of wrapping it up while still leaving a possible future.

I gave considerable thought to this (perhaps too much), and the "safe" choice in making this list would be to rank 'Conversations with Dead People' higher, but sometimes you have to go with your heart. After all, it is my list. There is a lot of great television out there, but there are few shows that I truly love; Buffy is one of them. This finale is not without its flaws, but watching it, I find that I feel content and at peace with the end of this series ... that's not an easy task, and in truth, I could ask for nothing more. In the end, we are treated to the best payoff we could ever desire: the weight of the world removed from Buffy's shoulders. For at the core of this show was always one lonely girl trying to find her place in a crazy world, and now she finally has the chance. Perhaps the girl who's returned from the dead twice may finally rest in peace. "Yeah, Buffy, what are we gonna do now?"


[size=large]#3 - Six Feet Under - 'Perfect Circles'[/size]   (03.02.03)
Written by: Alan Ball, Directed by: Rodrigo Garcia
"Go ahead ... open the box." - Nathaniel Fisher

Ignorance is bliss. The more we understand about the Universe, the more disturbing it becomes. In fact, many of the great minds who helped formulate what we now refer to as quantum physics spent a lifetime trying to disprove what was being theorized, as the reality of it all (or lack thereof) raised such undesirable questions about our very existence. I guess some background may be necessary here, so I'll give a brief overview for the unfamiliar, but by no means is this a complete representation of the state of quantum physics, and if I explain it poorly, I apologize ... it's been a long day. Those who want a lifetime of sleepless nights can research all these subjects further.

Anyway, most high school students are familiar with Heisenberg Uncertainty: the more precisely the position of a particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum is known. This isn't a big deal on a macroscopic scale, since the effect is negligible, but on a subatomic scale, it becomes quite the problem. Quite simply, the way we observe the Universe is with light, as photons bounce off objects and reflect information to the observer. On a subatomic scale, the act of bouncing a photon off a particle to find its position alters its momentum, and we can never know both with any certainty. That really sucks, and it's why the Enterprise crew is unhappy when the mythical Heisenberg Compensators are on the fritz ... but that's only the beginning.

The double-slit experiment (also hopefully performed in high school or early college courses) demonstrates that light is (for lack of better terminology) both a particle and a wave, and in conjunction with numerous other observations and experiments (namely Bohr's model of the atom), de Broglie put together what's often referred to as the "wave-particle duality" of matter. When taken to the next level, using single photons one after another, the double-slit experiment shows that independent particles interfere with one another in a most puzzling manner. Not to be outdone, Schroedinger developed a wave equation describing the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles and showed that wave and matrix mechanics were mathematically equivalent. Poor guy. Bohr came back into the picture, along with Heisenberg and many other great minds of the period, and built the Copenhagen Interpretation on Heisenberg's principle and Schroedinger's equation, opening the door to perhaps the biggest philosophical debate of all time: a particle exists as a wave form probability until it is "observed," at which point the wave form collapses and it "decides" its position and "exists." Until observed a particle can only be described as a probability of its potential existence; in fact, quantum mechanics dictates that it is a superposition of all potential outcomes until observed.

Schroedinger was not to keen on the fact that his equation was being used in this manner, so he set out to demonstrate the complete absurdity of the Copenhagen Interpretation in a "thought experiment" known as "Schroedinger's Cat." He sought to demonstrate that there is no "line" between the macroscopic world that is described through our own observation and the microscopic world that is supposedly affected by it. Take a radioactive isotope with a 50/50 chance of decaying within an hour and place it in range of a Geiger counter that is connected to a vial of poison such that if the isotope decays, the poison will be released. Enclose this toy with an unsuspecting kitty cat in a steel box and wait. According to quantum physics, the isotope is both decayed and non-decayed until it is "observed." Consequently, the cat is both alive and dead until someone opens the box to check on him.

This most certainly cannot be the case ... or can it? Detractors of the Copenhagen Interpretation have raised many valid questions, and I'm just giving background, not asserting how you should interpret this ... but the fact remains that every experiment performed in the last 70+ years intended to analyze this has done nothing but support the concluded results. An alternate view (which is also supported with results) is that each wave form collapse creates two parallel universes where each scenario occurs. This isn't science fiction; as crazy as it sounds, the model works in describing the behavior of subatomic particles. As Feynman says, "You’ll have to accept it ... because it is the way nature works. You don’t like it? Go somewhere else ... to another Universe, where the rules are simpler, philosophically more pleasing, more psychologically easy. I can’t help it, okay?" Why the model works is a subject of intense debate as it questions the very nature of our own existence. Have no fear, though ... Schroedinger's Cat is just a thought experiment, and you can rationalize it away with arguments over what constitutes "observation" of a particle. The related Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox, however, will make your head spin.

Now, wait a minute ... isn't this a list of the Top 50 dramatic television episodes of the season? Don't blame me ... I didn't write the episode. In a stroke of what can only be referred to as genius, Alan Ball seamlessly merged quantum physics' most dazzling mystery with one of television's most impressive shows. Nate is dead ... and he's not. Observe the following discussion with his father:

Nathaniel, Sr.: Do you believe that your consciousness affects the behavior of subatomic particles?
Nate: Am I alive or am I dead?
Nathaniel, Sr.: Do you believe that particles move backwards and forwards in time and appear in all possible places at once?
Nate: And if I am dead, is this heaven or hell?
Nathaniel, Sr.: Do you believe that the Universe is constantly splitting into billions of parallel universes?
Nate: WHAT THE **** DO I CARE?!?
Nathaniel, Sr.: You only get one choice, so you may want to think about this.
Nate: Just tell me. Am I dead? Yes or no?
Nathaniel, Sr.: Yes ... and no. Some places you’re dead, some places you’re alive. Some places you never even existed. Possibly, theoretically ... or who knows, this could just be the anesthesia talking. Go ahead ... open the box.

It's been a while since I've been in such complete awe of a television episode, but when this first aired I just stared at the screen, completely mesmerized by what I was seeing, in large part because the episode works just as well for those who have no knowledge of Schroedinger and his dead-alive cat. We see many different possibilities of Nate's existence or non-existence. He could have returned a vegetable. He may have married Lisa ... or Brenda. Perhaps his father didn't die in the accident that Christmas eve a few years back ... or maybe he didn't even have Nate to begin with. We find out in this episode that Nate's existence wasn't planned by his parents, and this set in motion the chain of events that leads to the Fisher family as we know it. We see all these possibilities, and then his father says, "you only get one choice, so you may want to think about this." Does our consciousness affect the behavior of matter? Does the observer affect the observed simply through observation? Do particles only exist when observed, and as such, is existence just a function of our own consciousness?

On my first viewing, I thought some of the references were a bit much, but in retrospect, I think it works to perfection. Note in the vegetable reality that David is trying to get him to form the word CAT. Todd obsesses over his child's refusal to stop playing with a cat at his get-together. Observe the melodramatic soap opera playing in the background of the white trash reality:

Woman: That was Dr. Schroedinger. Kitty, didn’t make it.
Man: So ... the universe has split in two.
Woman: Two? Try two billion!!! What’s gonna happen to us?
Man: There, there. We always end up a Universe in which we exist. Remember Copenhagen?
Women: Ah, yes! The Eigenvalues in bloom!
Man: You just keep telling yourself everything that can happen, does ... somewhere.

The second half of the episode focuses on this reality in which Nate exists and sets up the threads for the rest of the season. In doing so, we see countless instances of "interference." As mentioned earlier, one of the theories on the wave-particle duality is that parallel universes or "shadow" potential outcomes affect interfere with particles, and we see this in Nate's life as events from the other realities manifest themselves in his current reality. At the time, I had hoped that we would see more such interference throughout the season and further travel down this path, but I cannot fault the direction they chose to go.

This season premiere was such a complete shock in so many ways. It flipped the series completely upside down and did so with brilliant reference to one of the great scientific questions of our time. As the episode draws to an end, David sings "Some Other Time" from On the Town over a montage of the current state in the lives of the Fisher family. We close on a final scene with Lisa and Nate (and one final interference) discussing the nature of our existence and how meaningful the choices we make are:

Nate: Surely we're more than just things that happen.
Lisa: Maybe we are ... maybe we're not.


[size=large]#2 - Farscape - 'Bad Timing'[/size]   (03.21.03)
Written by: David Kemper, Directed by: Andrew Prowse
"You're gonna find, when you have your own, you want 'em to pass you, be better, climb higher; because if that's the measure, I'm the greatest Dad on Earth." - Jack Crichton

"And finally ... on Farscape ..." How do you end the most visually stunning and possibly the most thematically ambitious series in the history of television? Pretty difficult, I would think. Now, how do you end it when you've already built a cliff-hanger around a guaranteed 5th season only to find out on the last day of shooting that the scumbags who made that guarantee are weaseling out of their contract? Simple ... you don't. Farscape isn't my favorite show of all time, nor is it even my favorite current show, but I find that I have a level of respect for this series unmatched by anything I have ever seen. Farscape is many different things to many people. At its core, it's a beautiful love story; on the surface, it's a thrilling science fiction adventure; and in between, it is consistently the most daring program on television, unafraid to try anything.

David Kemper made it clear to the fans in the weeks leading up to this episode that he had the opportunity to tweak this season finale and make it a series finale, but to avoid spoilage, he wouldn't reveal anything about what they did or did not do. He would only say that the inner circle of the series (behind and in front of the camera) got together, discussed it, and unanimously agreed on how they wanted this finale to play out. After it aired, the audience could see precisely what he meant. This episode could very easily have been tweaked to wrap everything up nicely, and probably without even adding any extra shots ... but that wouldn't be very Farscape, now would it? Still, we are treated to some great scenes fitting of a closing episode, with Rygel convincing Pilot to collapse the wormhole, Aeryn and John sorting out their issues, and a touching final conversation between John and his father.

The show could have ended this way, and I wouldn't have been unhappy. It would have been a solid end. However, my respect for this show stems from the fact that it has never cheated its audience, and this finale proved no different as we are dangled over the edge of oblivion, rescued in the nick of time, and just as we find comfort and safety on solid ground, we are shoved over the edge from behind in possibly the most gut-wrenching moment of the show's 4 year run, and the series fades out with the echoes of D'Argo's guttural roars. Those sounds still haunt my dreams, and as the episode closed, I had to consciously remind myself to breathe. And then ... like a giant middle finger to the frellniks who conspired to destroy science fiction television in this country ...




[size=large]#1 - The West Wing - 'Twenty Five'[/size]   (05.14.03)
Written by: Aaron Sorkin, Directed by: Christopher Misiano
"I think it's a fairly stunning act of patriotism ... and a fairly ordinary act of fatherhood." - Will Bailey

From the opening scene, the audience knew this was the episode to see, and if this is the last time Sorkin writes for this show, he was going out on top. Following the graduation of his daughter, the Bartlet family and friends have gathered around and are reminiscing her childhood while looking through old pictures. And then Leo shows up, out of breath, sickened by what he has to tell his best friend. No dialogue is heard as Leo pulls him away from the party and explains the situation. President Bartlet is holding a glass, and you fully expect it to fall from his hands and shatter on the floor in typical dramatic fashion, but instead he loses grip of the family photos, and they litter the floor. As the camera zooms in on a childhood picture that looks remarkably like the Zoey we're used to, the glass then falls from above (without shattering) spilling ice and liquid all over the photos. The look of horror on the President's face is all his wife needs to see to know precisely what has happened. No words ... just emotion.

As this season wound to a close, viewers of The West Wing had to be prepared for some sort of cliff-hanger. They've done it each season, and they've done it incredibly well. The resignation of the Vice President was a big blow and was topped the following week by the apparent kidnapping of Zoey Bartlet. This would be more than enough to keep viewers on the edge of their seats during the summer months, but the series showed an impressive amount of courage as they pushed the audience even further to the edge and did so with yet another in a long list of absolutely perfect casting decisions.

"We're in control. The government is functioning. This is the most important press conference of your life." How everyone reacts in the next few hours will not only control the fate of the President's daughter but the nation as a whole, and the question of who holds that control is on everyone's mind. Leo tries to reassure Bartlet that he's surrounded by good people who won't let him do anything stupid in his time of grief, but that's not good enough. Legally, they have to follow his orders, and in their hearts they know what has to happen next.

And yet 'Twenty Five' is more about parenthood than anything else as Toby's children are born in untimely contrast to Zoey's abduction, and Richard Schiff steals the show with a command performance. The terror he faces is one many of us face -- will he be a good father? -- but it's made worse by his fear that he won't love his children the way he's heard about. As his ex-wife pointed out earlier, he's a very "sad" person, and he fears he's just not capable of the kind of life-changing love everyone tells him follows the birth of children. The moments he shares with his newborn children are touching and beautiful and some of the best scenes of the entire television year. "This isn't going to mean anything to you, but Leo was right ... Leo was right." Moments later, seeing home videos of the Bartlets on the News, he realizes he has to return to the office and now: "the President's got to get out of the West Wing. I don't know what we've been thinking." "How are the babies? Are they OK?" Leo asks. "Yeah, they're great. And if someone was hurting them, I'd drop napalm on Yellowstone to make them stop. Letting some prisoners out of jail would be nothing, and I've known my kids for 45 minutes." With that statement, he sums up both situations perfectly as he finally understands what that fatherly love is, and he also understands why Bartlet cannot be in control of the country.

There are many great scenes packed among the action -- Charlie inches away from beating the crap out of Jean Paul, Toby informing his staff that his children were born while they're panicking over the abduction, Abby losing sanity and preparing to make a plea to the press, saying "I've just seen other mothers do it" and finally President Bartlet turning over the powers of the Presidency to the Speaker of the House. Throughout the episode, when asked what they'd do in the event of certain scenarios, each character would always reply, "Leo will know what to do." And so they gather in the Oval Office to transfer power, and they slowly start to debate how they announce this. C.J. suggests the first thing they do is make it clear to the rest of the country there's someone in charge. Josh notes that first they have to make it clear to the world, and Will points out they need to make it clear to the terrorists. The Speaker interrupts, detailing the sequence of events that led to World War I, following with "someone needs to make it clear to the people in this room that someone's in charge." Bartlet steps up to defend them pointing out that they haven't slept in a long time, and the Speaker curtly informs him that he is relieved of duty. Without fanfare Leo assumes the responsibility everyone's entrusted in him all episode: "you're relieved, Mr. President."

Even after an average season -- by its standards -- there isn't a doubt in my mind that The West Wing is the best series on network television, and they finished this season with 3 incredible episodes (each of which appears on this list). To have such a large cast and still be able to paint such wonderfully deep and diverse characters is a truly remarkable accomplishment. I can only hope that the departure of Sorkin and Schlamme from the series can be weathered. I debated this in my mind over and over, as the thought of choosing 'Perfect Circles' appealed to my sense of awe, and 'Bad Timing' is clearly the sentimental favorite, but I cannot deny a simple truth: 'Twenty Five' is a perfect hour of television. Acting, writing, direction, editing, and score ... it's the bar that all shows should strive to achieve. The last two seasons, I have rewarded daring and powerful uniqueness. This season, I choose to recognize execution ... flawless execution. It may not be a popular choice, but I believe it's the right one.

[size=large]Reminder: This thread is here to store the ramblings and pictures of the entire list (once I'm finished posting it). To keep any potential discussion in a single location, please use to the Modem Friendly version of the thread.[/size]

Thanks

Please sticky this thread...

sorry, but can we have this in the archives? I know the "lets kiss das monkey's ass" posts are for the other thread , but he watches and knows way too much about tv, and this should be in the archives.

Bloody amazing put together thread

Shame i only watch Smallville, Angel and Buffy from the list